Welcome to the Age of Indifference

Oil extracted from the ground
in prodigious amounts
to feed the hunger of humans in the
age of the irascible machine.

From the ancient carbon stores,
many things are fashioned,
gasoline runs the engines
designed to foster and prolong convenience,
to feed the insatiable progress machine.

From the fuel that was earth’s bounty,
wondrous polymers are constructed,
molded in myriad forms to
shape our insatiable indulgence.

From wild and exuberant beginnings,
the creatures that call themselves human
have created an elaborate reality
that has removed them so completely
from their origins that
the future is dying.

Magnificent creatures that
remind us of the wildness of the world
we once had,
disappearing from earth’s diminished bounty.

Polar Bears drowning
ice no longer able to
sustain them.

Tigers and Rhinos and Elephants
slaughtered to near extinction
to satisfy ancient superstitions and
feed the endless lure of profit.

Zoos destined to be their
final habitat.


The insatiable human penchant
for order and dominion
wrecks havoc upon this hapless planet.

Once wholesome air
now populated with
noxious chemicals
too numerous to catalog
turn lungs into black parchment and
suffer the children.

Water is no longer considered sacred
squandered by abuse
bottled water now the norm
fresh water no longer trusted,
fire retardant resident in
woman’s milk.

Oceans, pity the oceans
the fate of coral, uncertain,
denizens of the ocean depths
depleted by the extravagance
of human folly.

Humans, an unfinished species
seem incapable of learning
from a history of profound mistakes,
too inured to the machinations of
the lower brain,
too bridled by emotions,
too wedded to the
shallow dimensions of self.

What does the future hold for
creatures so immersed in
paths of self deceit and
mindless destruction.

What gruesome future
will unfold if
we do not take hold of the present and
transform it to something
hopeful and transcendent.