The World
is not owned
by you or me
or anyone.
We paint lines
in sand with
blood and oil
and tears
and think some
signed treaty
will decide what's
mine or yours
or theirs.
The waves will
roll and the
dust clouds gather
amid the swirling
sands that shift
and leave our
monuments covered
deep beneath where
upon some future
will build their
effigies
in stone.
Mark your territory
like a feral cat -
slash his throat
until the blood
runs out.
You too will die
one day, by famine,
the sword or worse.
Sleep upon your
pile of fleeting
gold and shout
you are exceptional,
the best.
In ten thousand years
when your grave
lies unmarked,
unheralded for
the whole world
to see - remember
this - this World
is not mine,
or yours, or theirs,
it is its own.
© Eleanor Clark
17 December, 2014
"Kings are making conquest to grasp possessions and wading up to the neck [in] blood to do it—and they die and are damned and don’t possess it." -John Taylor, October 1852 https://history.lds.org/article/lost-sermons-john-taylor-government-and-war?lang=eng
ReplyDeleteAn excellent quote that most definitely applies. Thank you for sharing!
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