Parted from the inhuman heights of the heavens,
We dwell deep, deep down
In what we’ve shaped
Into the final spoils
Of Planet Earth,
Lost amid our own
All-consuming desire
To rise up and stand out.
We are funny creatures
Of spiraling arms
And spindly legs,
Equally drawn and repelled
By each other’s tastes and tones,
Gifted with two eyes
To view the world around us
And yet remain often oblivious
To all and everything
Other than ourselves,
Though ever curious
To understand each other,
Oft’ times care for each other,
And, more often, control each other
As we wander about on two feet
And ten tiny nubbins named toes
With spine up stretched
As if trying to reach for the stars
Though all the time busy
Trying to make stars of ourselves-
Forever wanting to shine
As we bask in the warmth of the sun
And be remembered
As we fall drowsy under the spell
Of the moon.
Fickle fellows we are
Who fall frequently fool
To fortune,
Forever following the flock,
Fast footed on the flow
Of fashion and idols of falsity,
Fiercely arrogant
And fearlessly fumbling forward
Through consumer moments,
Appetizing advertising and diets of the day-
Were we not once modeled
Upon a glorious god-
An unparalleled picture of perfection
That somehow slipped, over time, to rejection.
Ambitious creatures are we-
Carnivorously craving more from the pot
And constantly climbing this ladder,
That ladder- every ladder.
No longer willing to settle
For only land and sea,
We molded man-made wings of metal
And matched the birds in flight
Low over land and water, at first,
And then coveting the clouds
And soaring past those stars
We tried so hard as kids
To reach out and touch.
Yet here we are, today,
Ascending higher than ever,
Reaching for those inhuman heights,
Us, with our spiraling arms
And spindly legs,
Eyes to understand
And ears to comprehend,
Capable of so much glory
With our courage and convictions
And opposable thumbs-
We had the hope
To hold the whole universe
In our hungry hands
With those fumbling fingers
And gnarly nails.
We will continue
To rise onwards and upwards
Charting skies lanes and skyways,
Naming those long, burnt-out,
Fading stars
After ourselves-
As if deserving-
But, while we wage war
On our own individuality-
On those very tastes and tones
That both attract and distract us,
Then the heavens will remain,
Always and forever,
The untapped attainment of human desire.
Damien B. Donnelly 