Endure by Mara Lemanis

Endure by Mara Lemanis

 

Endure

 

It's an axiom

this freight that drives us

can't endure

my body is a mist

exhaled by aged sequoias

my microbes fill the heavens

toss tiny pearls into a mural

like a luminous shroud

that mists and weeps

as warm hooks into cold

as sea soaks spores of sky

 

The powers of nature

we've trained to pump for tar

refine it into heady wine that

makes our motors run

and lights the sights

we've trapped for our

efficient cause and purposes

— the heat, wind, floods,

the waters we made stew

that cook our ice —

those powers can’t endure

the things we’ve seized

beyond their will

 

We regret the outcome

but goad the doom to come

like tourists spellbound, proud

up on a southeast archipelago

we gape as 10-foot lizards

thrash tails and claws

wolf down whole goats and deer

while clefts beneath our feet

gape back and sweep

us into chasms;

pride without wit

will not endure

readiness is all

that will

 

 Mara Lemanis

Images: 1) Enduring Komodo dragon, 2)  Enduring mist 

 

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