Nature

I ask my children to examine nature
and hold it tenderly to their eyes
like a fragile carving from long ago
or to listen to its sounds
like the beating of a heart.
I say wade into it gently
wait and watch and let it come to you.
I want them to experience it
from inside the wood
not from inside the glass of their modern home.
I want them to dance a dirge
to the song of a mourning dove
or laugh with the babble of the brook.
But all they want to do
it capture it, exploit it
racing across it in machines
too fast to see what they're destroying
or forcing it to retreat
for new homes and a local 7-11.
They doze and change the landscape
then spend thousands
making their landscaping look natural
searching greenhouses and flower stores
for native plants
that have lost their native habitat.