INEVITABLE

The candle once lit consumes itself
providing light and heat in its conversion
till slowly it ebbs, flickers, is no more.
For thousands of years it has been so.
It is inevitable.

Life once born initiates a cycle
with an unsteady but assured culmination
that given time and circumstance
provides for its final transformation.
For hundreds of thousands of years
it has been so.
It is inevitable.

Our small star for which we and our planetary system
depend on for life and sustenance
has been and is consuming itself
at an alarming rate in geologic time
meaning that it too will deplete itself
in distant future times.
For billions of earth years
it has been so.
It is inevitable.

So, as it stands, all life, all matter, eventually
through one mechanism or other
consumes, converts, transforms itself
till that which we had known it as,
is recognizable no more.
For all have changed forms, structures, be it
animate, inanimate, planet or star.
Since the birth of the Universe it has been so.
It is inevitable.

OR IS IT?

Suppose there is nothing inevitable
that we put our human minds to,
given time, energy, human traits
including inventiveness, collaboration,
a bit of stubbornness, onerousness
which combined in totality,
providing we do not first exterminate ourselves,
is the vehicle for the salvation of humankind.

The forces of progress we have unleashed
thus far continue at an astounding pace,
unabated in all fields of human endeavor.
We have changed matter, cloned, created life,
navigated , transversed parts of space
begun the final never ending adventure
that will allow humankind to surely
transport and resurrect itself in ample time
thus avoiding endlessly, the inevitable.

HERBERT HOLZBAUER
© May 2000