to be here, to notice, and the price?

Death, the Foundation

how daunting it is realize how many deaths there were before me,
how many deaths there were and are because of me,
how daunting to realize how many experiments
that were ventured since life first began,
their paths not taken for long,
and still entropy yields to complexity,

how torturous has been the path of the dots
that connect blue-green algae to me,
how daunting the many plants and animals
that have died in forced service
for me to be here with this pen writing these words,

I look out, I look back, I look forward,
and it is good to be aware
and to create meaning with perception,

yet today I want to honor the first ancestors
who stepped out of the immediate
and buried someone they loved,
who offered flowers, and other tangibles, in memory and appreciation,

should not every moment we live
honor all that has had to be, and had to not be,
that we can sit here
and notice where and who we are?

by Henry H. Walker
June 4, ’11