THE VANISHING SPECIES

One more Ric Masten poem.


THE VANISHING SPECIES

I was born on a planet
almost seventy seven light years from here

an idyllic world
where children grew up
without the threat of nuclear holocaust
or global warming
no instant messaging systems
no black revolutions
gay revolutions
drug revolutions
no woman's liberation
not even the choice
of taking or not taking the pill

true
the seed of all this was there
but had nothing to do
with my formative years

and now
I find myself come to this harsh place
a kind of space traveler
having close encounters
with my own children

like creatures
from different star systems
we stare at each other
across the void
even our words have different stems

we are aliens in each others midst

but damn it
I am the one saddled with the memory
of that other place
part of a colony
stranded on planet earth
at the beginning of the twenty first century
marooned
with no way to go back
and no time to go on

like a moon being eclipsed
my kind will soon be gone
and in light of the headlines today
the sooner the better