dome of life
please yes restore us
get us breathing with you
or there’s nothing for us
how we humans toil and roil, burn and boil
while giant sequoia trees just trying to breathe
gigantic thousand year old beings
and the earth just spinning, spinning, spinning
we can’t bear this dome of life
with a foundation of low wage misery
we won’t bear this dome of life
with self-as-center posts and beams
we’ll never bear this dome of life
when human suffering’s heavier than gravity
as every day the earth keeps spinning like
humans, get the job done
if you can’t there’s gonna be a problem
it’s just that we figured it out
we already know
how this atmospheric shelter above us glows and grows
solar, hydrous, terranean, gaseous
lattice of the living, bio-crystalline
pushing back, protecting us
from frigid interstellar darkness
what’s the use saying fuck this, we out
searching for a planet b that hasn’t been found
on a spaceship that hasn’t been built
like an excuse for the earth we killed
no use pretending ignorance about why the blue sky’s blue
as if we’re all dumb beasts slobbering helpless at the feast
blaming mother nature for our dis-ease
as every hour the earth keeps spinning like
humans, what’s the problem?
nature’s gonna find someone else if you can’t get the job done
every moment every living being
bears the weight and creates the dome of life
we humanity can be the dominant apex species
the boss, the manager, an architect, a protector
the farmer, the shepherd
or humanity can be just another life form laid to rest
we came, we went, it was sorta fun, the end
but humanity cannot be both a savior and a failure
trying to save ourselves by failing everything else
like a parasite asking it’s host “hey you ok with dying?”
“i am the most powerful, intelligent species, made in the image of god
i have providence and dominion over all the earth has to offer
all the flora, all the fauna
i will plow and dig and cut and burn and stake and take what is mine at will and…
oh oh, but wait, wait, i’m supposed to handle
decisions, responsibilities and management like the top species granted dominion?
no no, remember, i’m just a dumb animal, a poor helpless beast
can’t think, nothing but instinct, not my job, don’t ask me, i lost the keys”
i own a car, my freakin’ lights work
every day this writer lives with, works with, uses, employs hydrocarbons
i’m human, most definitely not perfect
but is the future really to be found in regression and aversion
living perfectly in a cave with nothing
like some holier-than-thou judgement
demanding others change their lives
before they’ve even changed their minds
or opening views that are frozen and closed in
raging with blame, or engaging them to change
hey, you’re the captain, are you ok with sinking?
as every minute the earth keeps spinning like
humans, just get the job done
nature’s hiring someone else if you’re gonna be the problem
we will build, push up, sustain this dome of life
with buttresses of shared reality
all compressions, all tensions, all the weight
all the problems, all the solutions
born by a living structure of different beings
different beings inches away from you
thousands of miles away from me
connecting sustaining growing giving taking thriving
we will build, push up, sustain this dome of life
with questions big enough
with math big enough
frickin’ screens big enough
calculations, engineering, technology, data sets, models
answers
big enough
for all the life of life on earth
we will build, push up, sustain this dome of life
with rhythms of breathing
one breathes out what
another breathes in
as every second the earth keeps spinning, spinning, spinning
and we work out who’s to blame
or we work together and get the job done