The Breath of the Earth

From my collection of science poems

The Breath of the Earth

 

Planetary lungs were present

Long before sentience

And even the first sentence

With ancient essence

Transmuted light to food

Ozone the flood of atmosphere

 

Skin of a jewel without masses

No inhabitants but long grasses

Towering trunks that breathe gases

Drinking deep of flood flashes

Saying hello to the world with

Blossoming leaves that flourish

 

With summer comes inhalation

Carbon dioxide absorption

With winter comes exhalation

Oxygen in stoichiometric proportions

Each single breath winds

A cycle around the sun

 

All life owing them gratitude

At the utmost latitude

Shielding radiation’s magnitude

Even still, our attitude

Is brazen and blind to how

We are nothing without them