Something is very wrong.
The chemical smells, sick plants, 
dying birds and insects.
(It actually hasn’t been very long,
just a blink in geologic time)
since we began transforming
these wild watery gardens
of ourselves, the universe 
of our own bodies,
into toxic dumps.
Are we too far lost to 
retrace our steps,
to find our way back?

Although I don’t know their names
or their places on my family tree or
on anyone’s family tree, I am certain
that somewhere in my past, and in
your past, and in all of our pasts, 
were people who knew how to live 
in better ways than these, who
lived  in good ways, who walked 
lovingly on the earth, who did not 
cause too much damage to other 
people or to other creatures, or to 
our mother, and who left our world 
perhaps even a little better than they 
found it. It is to these ancestors that 
we need to turn for guidance to find 
their lost path and follow it.

Are we too far lost to retrace 
our steps, to find our way back?
(It actually hasn’t been very long)
Strange odors, sick birds, dying trees.
(just a blink in geologic time)
since we began transforming these 
gardens of ourselves, this wild 
watery universe of our own bodies.