O Earth you are so
big sometimes
(when rememberingishard and forgettingiseasier)
i forget you are there.
i threw something on the ground the other day,
unthinking.
Such a small, inconsequential ittybitty thing to do.
It was just a small piece of paper, some advertisement
some street hawker had handed me.
This was surely not harmful, surely not cruel
...right?
Wrong, said my Conscience
(and folks, it is no accident that the word “science”
helps make up the word “conscience,” because
all that is
wise&good&beautiful
about humanity
was already here first,
in the knowledge that exists
in a silent blade of grass
and in the furious stirringofbirds
and the flirtatious wind that tickles the backs of mountains;
you knew us, home, truly, before we knew you).
So it was
with heart in hand,
repentantly, dear Earth
i trudged back to where i had thrown the paper
and picked it back up
wishing that was all it took
to make up for all the times
every single pithy insignificant human being
decided to forget you, too.