SAPIENCE

for Duane Elgin

     Since life on Earth seems destined to advance,
     How may our sapient species next enhance
     Our course of evolution and grow wise—
     That latency we’ve yet to realize?

     What aptitude do we most need to nourish
     For humankind at last to fully flourish?
     Our very name shows how we are inclined,
     And yet our history’s more cruel than kind.

     Sapience being more sought for than achieved,
     We pray from folly now to be reprieved
     And from those deadly sins that do us in
     So a blest era may at last begin:

          When we shall see the long-wished-for result
          That human beings have finally grown adult.

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