Upright

An evolving piece

 

Upright

© 2009 Mark Pearce

 

                        Come, little biped.

                        Crawl unto me.

                        Your hands blaze the path

                        For your shuttling knees.

 

                        Pull up, little biped.

                        What do you see

                        From your perch on two legs

                        And your arms dangling free?

 

                        Move a foot, little biped.

                        Walk unto me.

                        Take a well-measured step,

                        If so… hesitantly.

 

                        Walk tall, young biped

                        Now bigger and free

                        With arms cast from swinging

                        From tree unto tree.

 

                        Run fast, handsome biped

                        Run fast as the breeze

                        And capture the food

                        In the field as it flees.

 

                        And not just in the field,

                        But the streams and the seas

                        And with your advantage

                        Take food from the trees.

 

                        From the ground

                        From the caves

                        From the muck

                        From the air

                        There’s hardly a morsel

                        That’s safe from your snare

                        From your trap

                        From your point

                        From your net

                        From your fire…

 

                        But what happens when

                        All of the plants are supplanted?

                        The foxes out-foxed?

                        The ants de-anted?

                        When fruits fail to grow

                        From the harvested trees?

               

                        Do not fear, little biped,

                        These wages of sin.

                        For when that day comes

                        We’ll crawl once again.

 

Author's Note

Be thankful you can turn the page.

Reviews

[Creepy Swine Guy]

I had in mind a child when I started reading ... soon though, my understanding "evolved". Poetically I like it. But I wonder if we are wrong to survive as efficiently as we can manage to do so. Of course we should be sure to renew the resources that we deplete, but is it so wrong to learn to survive better?

[Emily B]

It started out so innocently . . . I rarely find myself surprised anymore.