HUMAN NATURE

for Carol Frost

“I’m not a nature poet,” she protested.
“Oh, yes, there’s nature in them, but what I’m
Concerned with always,” and her gesture stressed it,
“Is the human condition at this time.”

“And how’s that doing now?” I glibly asked.
“Are we improving, do you think, and have
We any hope our future’s not our past
And we’ll discover for our sins some salve?”

But she’d moved on to talk with someone else
Leaving me free to ponder my own question,
And so I wondered how we’d take the pulse
Of our humanity. I’ve this suggestion:

We simply have to ask of humankind
How kindly we’ve become, how love-aligned.

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