the crust of a planet - part one

whenever I look down--straight down if that were possible--
I see all we humans have done to the landscape and our infrastructure
we build to make life optimal or efficient or easy or familiar.

but what strikes me
is not that we are tearing up the soil
or ripping off rings of bark

nor is it that we're becoming advanced
or that our civilization's blueprint is spelled out in roads.

what strikes me
is that we're all children
digging holes to China and not getting very far
before we give up and try again a little further along.

and that we're clawing at our planet to make it a reflection
of ourselves, but our fingernails are still only in the varnish.