IT"S ONLY A LITTLE SQUARE

It’s only a little square,

3” x 3” or so?

But in your hand you hold…

A history book… of the Earth,

Of humanity.

The atoms of this square once lived green,

Or walked in Eden,

Lived and died,

Was covered and pressed

For thousands, no, millions…

No, maybe billions

Of Earth’s solar orbits.

Then YOU came along,

By God’s hand, by design,

Discovering a black goo under your feet.

You touched it,

You studied it,

You smelled it,

You listened to it,

And discovered

A thousand uses for it:

To heat a home,

To create energy to run machines,

To light the darkness.

And by some scientific miracle,

Playing with its molecules…

New materials were made … like… plastic.

It’s only a small square,

3”x3” or so…

Unfold it, it grows,

It enlarges…

Until it becomes a container,

2’x3’ or so.

In your hand,

The molecules of a life once lived green,

A billion years in the cooking,

Thousands of mind hours to recreate,

And thousands of hours of muscle to manufacture,

And you throw it on a trash heap,

And bury it… again.

Selah.

                                        Agd 4.26.14