Published on: 1/28/2016
Square One

The battered treetop and the driven wave
Submit to every raging winter storm,
But frightened human denizens behave
As if the benefice of being warm

Forever were their birthright. Sullen skies
Are helpful in creating unity
Among the pilgrims who, with lifted eyes,
Seek neither pity nor immunity.

A storm is like another virgin birth
That sanctifies the youthful indiscretions
Recounted in the lap of Mother Earth;
She seems delighted by our true confessions.

So let us now endorse sobriety
Of purpose— never mind how much we've drunk—
And pray we'll find the natural piety
No unenlightened skeptic can debunk.