ein denkmal

the world bears down upon us as
sun scorches the cracked yellow ground
of ancient desert valley.
once the bottom of the sea;
the water has since abandoned the craters
that provided an escape
from boundlessness
when the earth
was young.
we are pierced;
the way a child trying to grasp a rose
is stuck on a thorn
and begins to bleed
dark cherry red
that drips from his palms
staining his trousers
he cries with anger
at what he has yet to realize is the terrible pain
which all beauty belies;
her terror slowly surfacing
as time moves onward
revealing all.
we create a monument:
the striking illusion of mastery
overpowering the horror of nature;
equations
we know more
than the twisting spiral of a climbing vine
ever could.
giving her boundaries
limiting her potency by schematizing it
predicting her unfolding with numbers and letters
believing foresight
could limit her terror
undo her
citing systems and words as evidence of our predominance
the carved stone as proof of our power
over her great and terrible forces which brought us forth
and beckon us
from the root of every tree
the cracks at the bottom of the ocean
a volcano seeping hot red blood that turns all to stone
we forget this
so that we may try to create
a testament
the strength of man
the fragility of nature
carving stone
believing
that a memory may be strong enough
to withstand
the rivers that flow onward
flooding valleys
eroding rock
claiming everything
that lay ahead