Almost round, outlined in blue <br />Too lonely to be understood <br />Intimate to her tenants' touch <br />The globe in space is effortless. <br /> <br />A bulb of light for the dim expanse <br />Rotating, hovering in grace <br />Her dance a step unknown to those <br />Who claw and scar her surfaces. <br /> <br />Scientists of restrictive laws <br />Know that life and sustenance <br />Flow only from her hidden core <br />To which all worshippers are called. <br /> <br />I touch her grass and trees with care <br />From her I learn that all I am <br />Will grow and eat and age and die <br />On earth and waters she provides. <br /> <br />The globe rotates her deserts of time <br />Where human life and love began <br />The oceans churn and come to rest <br />Where they meet the open sky. <br /> <br />Seabirds cry their panic notes <br />Coastal creatures seek the hills <br />While in a quiet island bower <br />A bee stabs at the buttercups. <br /> <br />By Pooh stickers and alphabets <br />A child spins her globe around: <br />'Daddy, I want to see Africa. <br />Can you take me there again? ' <br /> <br />Enclosed in remnants of the woods <br />Spirit guardians recall <br />Her most intricate fish and beasts <br />The stories loved by childish hearts. <br /> <br />Her king of beasts known to be wise <br />But when wisdom is not his prize <br />Her soil that yields his daily bread <br />Is stained with red, his daily blood. <br /> <br />Saplings nursed in netting shade <br />Are planted stem by stem with care <br />In a yearly rite, on Sahelian hills <br />After the falling of the rain. <br /> <br />Semi-lit against the dark <br />With purpose through its daily work <br />A tiny brush restores the glow <br />To fading faces of the globe.<br /><br />Frank Bana<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/globe-in-darkness/
