Until We Learn

by M. Doretta Cornell, RDC

Until we learn how we are

part of it all, we will continue

to destroy.

Until we learn how grass is linked to summer

and glut to starving child,

we will continue to separate, to choose

one part and let the other die,

 not knowing both die in that one.

Until we learn how the stars are

our flesh and bone born light years past

and tomorrow rests on the freedom

of the river and all our soap spume

clogs the veins of children living

far downstream in time and space,

and our plastics turn the surf into cancer

or a death trap for a pelican,

until we learn we’re all connected

we’ll devour the links, not seeing gaps

where our toes and ankles were

until we fall

and drown

in the uninhabitable sea 

of our own emptiness.