One Canoe Poem by Maureen N. McLane

Recalcitrant elephants
begin to attack.
The angry young males
of murdered mothers.

Any Martian could see it
how we did it

The historian of   the future
is amazed. So much feeling

once in so many bodies.
But maybe they were different
didn't think or feel that much.

Apocalypse is easy
Thinking's hard

Should we summon
a Roman Stoic to narrate?
Someone secretly thrilled
by the gore?

The clouds move through
an Adirondack sky unscored
by satellite towers.

People want what they want
& what they want is never one thing.

All that desire
sliming a space rock

Shivering the air
a loon's cry.
There is only so much
you can care for or carry

& for this there is
no one canoe