What is the problem

for the Earth?

It is not the ants, spiders, butterflies

or dragonflies,

not the bats nor the fragrant meadow flowers,

not the forests 'round the coniferous belt of the planet

It is not the seas, the lakes, rivers or streams,

not the countless pebbles

of ancient wave-polished boulder fields

and glacial outwash fans,

not the grains of sand

across all the shores of the world

an in a Bob Dylan song

It is not the hills or the mountains,

not the earthquakes that rip through the ground

and open speedy cracks and crevasses,

not the volcanoes or mud flows,

not the ebb and flow nor the circadian rhythm,

not the soughing of the aspens

We, the people, are the problem;

bags of entrails with evil faces

We have to go

Let all presumptuous religious people get down

on their knees

and pray for a pandemic

that will clear away 99.99% of us in a jiffy,

and let the rest of us hope for the same,

and all go our separate ways

into oblivion