Human Nature Poem by Laurence Overmire

When will it end?
Not if, but when.
The how is not so hard to predict.

We'll simply find a techno-marvelous way
To do ourselves in, or
Maybe we'll fry ‘neath a much too-hot sky

(How long did we deny?)

Maybe we'll poison the rivers, the trees, the air
Till there's nothing left but sand.
Or maybe we'll just atomize ourselves in one mad flash of

Self-righteous indignity.
Whatever or whenever
We, fools that we are

Will eventually pawn
This beautiful jewel of a planet
Entrusted to our keeping.

What will happen then
When the Earth is a cold desolate rock
Spinning in the infinity of space?

Nothing.
The universe will go on just as before.
Galaxies will swirl and collide.

Suns will die.
New stars will be born.
But ‘neath the light of a lonely moon

No longer will there be
A single human being
To behold the splendor of it all.

~ Laurence Overmire

(Previously published in No Alibi Press, Feb.2002)