(for earth day)

maybe god
left us with an irresponsible babysitter

all those aeons of loving care
since we were only hydrogen

and then some rube of a teenage sub-god
gave us a glimpse of fire, as a joke
and we were gone

out of the cradle,
over the rail,

taking in the fall
from this 21st-story balcony

stretching it in time
calling it a lifetime

making believe
we were born to achieve

this
terminal velocity

— March 26,  2007 / April 2009