Catalyst

We all have seen it
by now
The blue and white-froth Earth image
as cast back to us from cameras
up there
by astronauts
star sailors
our hands in the sky distance

An image to transfigure Humankind
not as quickly as some would like
and perhaps too late for others
who harden with pessimism

The Earth is the flesh
from which we have nurtured
with sun rays and elemental organization

From up there
way up there
we witness ourselves on our dwelling
this great and fragile blue Earth ball
An image unexcelled and humbling
somehow wandering its circle
suspended in the stillness
of a vastness surrounding

A vastness revealing
barren non-life in large numbers

On this sphere teeming
with little living things like us
seeing the environment
the limited place for the first time

The Earth seeing itself

And here close down
just when we discover who we are
we bite marrow and bone
discovering what destruction we have done

We see the blue coffin of our future
hearing the hammering of nails
We executioners and morticians
preparing our own way

G.J.G. 7/27/89

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