the finite of the pie

Squirrels As Cautionary Tale

squirrels are a cautionary tale about population control,

my cherry trees bear fruit,

only for the squirrels,

who ravage the potential harvest,

before the fruit is fully ripe,

squirrels are ravenous, always,

whatever can be eaten, up on a tree,

anywhere on the ground,

they claim as theirs,

and use the bounty to make more of themselves,

who add to the desperation all of them feel,

our squirrel-proof bird feeder must frustrate them, mightily,

squirrels, like humans, are slaves to their DNA,

as each of us succumbs to the drive to make more of us,

despite the limits the finite of the pie demands,

I planted a Chinese chestnut tree in the mountains,

for the tragedy of the extinction of this bountiful food source

moved me over a half-century ago to plant a chestnut immune to the blight,

so as to fight a rear guard action against the extinction,

a few years ago a mother black bear found the tree, full of nuts,

and broke a quarter of its branches 

so they’d fall to the ground for her cubs,

the bear is not nobler than us,

it just doesn’t have bulldozers,

any of the mechanization we humans use to enforce our will,

the squirrels are tyrants on our homestead,

they should remind us to share the bounty,

for we should be able to rise above

the driving imperative of propagating our genes in the short-term,

and realize that propagation in the long term

demands we curb the ravenous within us.

by Henry H. Walker

April 22, ‘20