Listen to Podcast Interview with Grace Cavalieri on The Poet and the Poem

Quasar & Maritza Rivera Reading the Poem:

"sic'm!  sic'm! we got'm on the run!
sic'm!  sic'm!"--you can almost hear
the hunters cry on their dogs--
the hunters that are we ourselves!
We have met the prey face-to-face:
it is we who are hounding
it is we who are driving
             the prey, hurtling, off the cliff
down, down, onto the bedrock bottom
             of the open pit of extinction
splat! the prey begins to crumple...
we see it in slow motion

we have met the prey face-to-face:
it is we who are hounding ourselves--
it is we who are driving ourselves,
             hurtling off the cliff
             --we see it in slow motion--
             our hurtling off the cliff
down, down, onto the bedrock bottom
             of the open pit of extinction
we are digging our own pit into our nest,
the Earth: all Earth, Earth is our nest.

we are bleeding the Earth
and the Earth, all Earth, Earth is our nest.
the Earth is bleeding
              black blood
the Earth is bleeding
             brown-gray smoke-smudge.
we cannot staunch the flow
from the Earth, our Earth...our blood...
and the Earth, all Earth, Earth is our nest.

Homo sapiens is sucking the blood
             of its own nest-bed
Homo sapiens is def'cating and ur'nating,
             dumping crushed bones and rancid flesh
             into the open pit of its own nest
and the Earth, all Earth, Earth is our nest.

only dying species excrete in their nests
it is a sign of a dying species
                  to dump its refuse, its own dung,
                  into its nest, its own nest--
we see it all in slow motion:
                 the fall, the crumple, the writhing moan
wrestling in the nest as the nest falls apart
and the Earth, all Earth, Earth is our nest.

the Earth is our arteries, our blood
veins, our lymph flow, our gut
the Earth is our nerve web, we feel
pulsations in the air, rock and sea
we receive the buzz of bees
in the flowers, corn-grasses, and trees
we love the whales' honey in our ears
we love the waves of fragrance wafting
and curling with soft edges in our nest,
the Earth: all Earth, Earth is our nest.

as we learn to fly and leave our nest
we must bend down, scrape, and clean our nest
instead, we play with money in the muck
instead, we suck off the nest of its blood
and the Earth, all Earth, Earth is our nest.

Homo sapiens, species we, now catch ourselves!--
            as we fall into the open pit...
Homo sapiens!--let's catch our own dung
            before it falls to Earth, our nest,
            our own nest, Earth, all Earth.
Homo sapiens on the road to extinction!--
let's turn the sign from "go" to "stop!
                              --and slow!"
so we can rest and grow, grow and rest
            in our nest, our own living nest,
            Earth--
                  all Earth, Earth is our nest
and Earth, all Earth, Earth is our nest.

      --12.23.2010 CE / 2.73˚Kelvin:
      13.8 billion years
      after the Big Bang (ABB)
      the Americas, Earth, Sol System,
      Orion Spur, Milky Way Galaxy,
      Local Group of Galaxies,
      Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies--
      in the Laniakea
      Overcluster of Galaxies--
      among 1000-plus galaxy clusters
      caught in the undertow,
      being pulled in the Dark Flow
      streaming towards the unknown...
      unseen...Even Greater Attractor--
      all in the Web-Weave of Galaxies
      stretching in the allwhere
      coiled in the voidnest
      here

First published in Watching the Universe Die & The Universe in Bloom (a dual book of poems)
available from the publisher, Global Scholarly Publications at www.gsp-books.org.
(Search under the name of the book title and under "Q.R. Quasar.")