To Survive Poem by Randy McClave

From the cold and frozen earth
Stood one lonely plant trying to survive
I thought was it mother nature’s worth
To allow this one lonely plant to stay alive,
Did it’s survival depended upon me
Should it have been in my thoughts or prayer
But then I thought life is not a solemn guarantee
And truly for its survival, I didn’t care,
The plant it did not produce any beauty for art
Nor did it produce any fruit to eat
So it did not touch my stomach or heart
The plant to me, it was incomplete,
So it alone fought the breeze and the frost
As it stood to grasp warmth from the sky
But the battle of its life it finally lost
As people like me didn't care if it would die,
Now the plant has just withered away
Its leaves had fallen slowly to the ground
Unto GOD and nature and life did I betray
As the plant finally died without a sound,
I walk the path where there once was a plant
Now the plant and its memories are dead
Because of me a plants life I did not grant
I now notice a homeless man begging to be fed.

Randy L. McClave