Standing Back

If this is the best you can do, citizens of the world,

I resolve to become summer shadow,

turtle adrift in a pool.

Today a frog waited in a patch of jasmine

for drizzles of wet before dawn.

The proud way he rose when water

touched his skin—

his simple joy at another morning—

compare this to bombing,

shooting, wrecking,

in more countries than we can count

and ask yourself—human or frog?