Mars. Artwork by Kevin Gill. (cc) 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Perhaps Mars once did have \u201clife\u201d.
\nPerhaps there were once dragonflies and porcupines
\nElephants and roses
\nAnd there had to be humans.
\nPerhaps they, too, screwed up
\nAnd destroyed it all
\nThrough greed and ignorance.
\nAnd Mars is still there.<\/p>\n
It could never have that beauty again
\nNever Baudelaire\u2019s raucous jade
\nNever Mary Oliver\u2019s swan
\nNever again dolphins leaping
\nSchubert\u2019s quintet
\nA sacred mountain
\nA wild rushing river
\nA baby crying.<\/p>\n
But does the universe care?
\nI think not.
\n\u201cLife\u201d does not go on
\nIt is born and it dies
\nLike a beautiful day.
\nAnd there will be other experiments.<\/p>\n
But I care
\nI shout it from the mountaintop
\nI find this place, this Earth
\nBeautiful beyond measure
\nIt fills my soul and spills over.
\nTo think of it, this web of Life
\nExtinguished
\nIs beyond pain
\nBeyond understanding
\nBlasphemy.<\/p>\n
Mary de La Valette
\nSept 2015<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>