New Earth (Haiku)

New Earth

It was something new

Earth being separate from

The expansive Sky

Earth had been warm there

Cocooned in eternal stars

Her cosmic playthings

But suddenly Earth

Found herself gazing upward

Far from her old friends

Nursing at the sky 

The Milky Way's breast, Earth smiled

But no smile came back.

For the Sky, knowing,
Gazed back with apprehension

Like parents might do

Looking at a child

Recently crippled, sensing 

What might lie ahead.

For others would come
Earth was not to be alone.
There would be Dwellers.

At first, they would love.

They would reverence the Earth

The Sky, and all Life.

But then they would change.

Sky had seen it countless times.

The Dwellers would change.

Ideas like more

And less would infect them all

They would conclude that

By taking from earth
The Dwellers could make themselves
Manufacture peace

Sky would see it all 

She would see the infection
As it began anew

And she would be sad.
For the Dwellers would wander
Would fight the Earth's ways

Instead of waiting

For instance, for season's change

They would break her skin

To plant even more

Than what they needed; more than

What freely grew there. 

The Dwellers would trade

And greed - unknown to nature
Would change everything.

The waters would die.
Animals, once abundant
Would vanish for good.

Mutated products
Garbage, war, disease would come...
And the Earth would die.

It had always been;
Had happened on many Earths
The Sky hoped, maybe...

Just maybe, this time
The Dwellers' souls would have learned...
Learned the way of peace

For hope rises East
And the Sky loves the Dwellers
Hopes for our growth

That's why Sky birthed Earth;
To give our riotous souls
Our old, restless souls

Yet another chance
To learn, to grow, to feel love
In the cold expanse.

So Earth gazed upwards
At the bright Sky gazing back
With great, grave, stillness.

--Eric Marley
April 2013