The World and What We Mean

Even said with conviction—
"we have to save the world"—
doesn't mean what we think.
It has such a selfish sound.

What will we save the world from?
From itself? From climbing heat?
From poison gas destroying
the very air we breathe?

Keep the ice from melting?
Keep the seas from rising?
Keep the bears from dying?
Keep the trees from burning?

Nein. Nyet. Non. Negative.
A thousand times no!
Despite the news repeating
"we do this for the planet."

All things eventually will perish.
Some other intelligence may come
to love the earth as much as we.
Something we will not recognize.

The earth will spin in space
until the sun goes nova—
long after all those things
die in the solar maelstrom.

It's still my opinion the selfish:
"we have to save the world"
means exactly this: "we have
to save the world—for ourselves."