Good Use of the Damned

Possibly, the Earth
Could be forgiven
For not foreseeing

Inventing bipeds
Could lead to chaos
Inside selection.

It was a long time,
Sort of, from the first
Tools to extinctions,

To reorderings
Of ecosystems,
To tearing Earth’s flesh.

Of course, some insist
Earth would have been fine
Left only to them—

It was the others
And their peculiar
Ideology

That led to this mess—
Not our ancestors,
Not our equipment.

We had it sorted.
We remained cautious,
Small, reverential.

We were Earth’s children,
Some still say—polite
And harmonious.

And maybe they’re right.
In any event,
It’s a human thing,

Whatever goes wrong,
To pick out persons
Whose wicked misdeeds

Were responsible.
Could Earth have known this
Would make matters worse—

Rules-obsessed passions,
Punishments, hubris,
This love of the curse?

Or was it in fact
All part of Earth’s plan
To finally get

Freed from life again?
Humans, Earth’s agents,
Earth’s humans, the damned.