Elsbeth Pancrazi
They loved the earth they said
one does not shun earth here
with their different ways of showing it:
the first lady who with her limo window frames the silent park under snow
the birdwatcher who gets out into the center of the mudflats in that car they lied about
the ledger of surveys, deeds, rights of way and easements
your neighbors with their come-hither lawns
and the poor who watch the storms closer than any person with insurance could—
They said they were reserving the right to look at things from a philosophic-geological perspective
That is, the people who suffer will suffer and if the universe does turn out to be sentient
that won't be the thing that makes it cry—
They clarified their earlier statement
We never needed earth they said
—but didn't you love it?
They said we never needed to love it
the unfaithful glaciers, temperamental atmosphere, fraught streams—
They say earth never loved us
I say it hasn't lied to us yet