A poem for Truth and Reconciliation Day

I have thought a lot lately about how western civilization has nothing civil about it, and how societies rise and inevitably fall. The industrial complex, capitalism, colonization -- it's not sustainable, much less deserving of being sustained. Then this morning I was intrigued by a sentence from Gary Snyder in the book The Practice of the Wild, and it prompted a poem.

The tide comes in,

runs heedless across the sand,

sweeping away our footprints, 

bringing sea wrack to trip us,

poisoning earth with salt.

Wait and watch, child --

it will devour itself, recede.

By nature, waves must collapse on themselves,

slip away, die off,

leaving us alone to return

our footprints to the sand.

It has always been thus, the world over.

Be patient, child --

The settled people can wait it out.