Fearful Symmetry

 

What a scary world we live in,

with Tall Greys after our DNA,

Reptilians lusting after our gonads,

Little Blues and Mantis Heads

that want our water, our gold,

our planet.

 

What craziness is imagined

that beetles will come from

another dimension …

to devour us?

Enslave us?

 

Still I fear the most dangerous

of all creatures is the guy down the street.

He insists he gains his freedom

only if I surrender mine.

 

I try to tell him that Mother Nature

is angry

and then he goes into a rant

that I am after his pickup truck,

his fishing boat and vacation home.

I defend creeps who want his teen daughter

who wears a bikini and flip-flops at the mall.

He is so certain that I want all the same

garage full of crap that he treasures,

and his teen daughter in pajamas at the mall.

 

I will not take his vacation home.

The sea will take his vacation home

and all the land around it.

I am just an ordinary primate;

he can buy my cooperation.

But he cannot buy the friendship

of the living sea.

I try to tell him the sea doesn't

give a flying shit for his money.

We can hope for the grace of God

and we can pledge our lives

to one another,

but the elements are mindless.

To live here, however bland our intentions,

we need permission.

Permission of the land, the water,

the sky, the stars.

The universe does not negotiate.

 

        John F. Manimas, August, 2022