Perhaps Mars once did have “life”.
Perhaps there were once dragonflies and porcupines
Elephants and roses
And there had to be humans.
Perhaps they, too, screwed up
And destroyed it all
Through greed and ignorance.
And Mars is still there.
It could never have that beauty again
Never Baudelaire’s raucous jade
Never Mary Oliver’s swan
Never again dolphins leaping
Schubert’s quintet
A sacred mountain
A wild rushing river
A baby crying.
But does the universe care?
I think not.
“Life” does not go on
It is born and it dies
Like a beautiful day.
And there will be other experiments.
But I care
I shout it from the mountaintop
I find this place, this Earth
Beautiful beyond measure
It fills my soul and spills over.
To think of it, this web of Life
Extinguished
Is beyond pain
Beyond understanding
Blasphemy.
Mary de La Valette
Sept 2015
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