Poem – “FOUR” CAST (By Ray Gallucci)

 

“FOUR” CAST

 

The earth’s been here four billion years,

But humans mere four million.

How often has the atmosphere

Received a “global killing?”

 

Have comets many seared the skies,

Volcanoes oft erupted?

What oceans parched till desert-dry

And climates left disrupted?

 

How many times has planet warmed,

Engorged with greenhouse gasses,

While glaciers melted and reformed

On continental masses?

 

Has dust obscured the solar light

For years without a summer?

Have days turned into winter nights

For years too long to number?

 

It’s only four millennia

Since first we scratched the surface

Of planet’s cornucopia

For our own selfish purpose.

 

It’s just been last four centuries

That we’ve begun to batter

Environment by felling trees

And killing life that matters.

 

Since only forty years ago

Have we possessed the power

To threaten nearly all we know

From elephant to flower.

 

If manage we to do our worst

On scale approaching global,

Can really we the planet hurt,

So ancient and so noble?

 

No more than mere mosquitoes we

To earth so long receiving

Assaults imposed externally

And from infernal regions.

 

So let us in our arrogance

Destroy what we should cherish.

In thousand years times forty hence,

Just we that will have perished.

 

(published in UNLIKELY STORIES, September 2002, on-line;

DANA LITERARY SOCIETY ONLINE JOURNAL, December 2005))

 

Author Bio:



I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.