I Dreamed I Killed the Earth Last Night

I dreamed I killed the earth last night, no easy tasks for me

What sets in slowly finally fails spasmodically

For years she feigned indifference, she really had it coming

Haven’t I the right to keep my enterprises humming?

Like a Bavarian clinician I accumulate the data

To put in place a foolproof case on why it doesn’t matter

If I peel away her mantle like I’d peel an orange rind

And give my host a legal dose fresh out of my behind

Her surface harbors treasures that I need for my convenience
I invented reign of terror mutilation is my genius

And though she tries to plague me to make my numbers plummet

By perversity and will I’ve somehow clambered to a summit

Where I can dodge her poisoned arrows and stay a step ahead

And barricade myself away from everything I dread

While I choke the air around me and vomit in the sea

And multiply until there’s room for nothing else but me

A side effect of dirty work’s a nagging guilty conscience

My yogi reassures me that it’s just a lot of nonsense

I’m banking that I’ll beat the odds and stay alive forever

Some projects on the drawing board are devilishly clever

If I only keep my focus all my efforts are prodigious

And anyhow to hedge my bets I’ve gotten quite religious

I dreamed I killed the earth last night

In final agony

She checked out with a flourish

Catastrophically

But as I tampered with the evidence what I didn’t see

Was that before I’d finished killing her I’d finished killing me

PASTEL DRAWING BY CLARENCE H. CARTER

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