Self-Styled Bodhisattva Vow to Save the Species

I won’t bother to look for bliss.
I’ll content myself in the mitigation of
suffering and in the effort to help others.
For that is a path forward, no matter
how many twists and turns must be navigated,
no matter how winding the cliched and storied path.
This is a one-stop shop, for all we know,
so it is wise and prescient of us to gather
rosebuds while we may, lest they be unavailable
tomorrow, for lack of stock in house, or merely
the wrong season for searching.
Sci-fi scientists look in the farthest most remote
atmospheres for life and red herrings, myths
to live by and fantasies to smoke, magic dragons to puff.
But that is all for an imaginary tomorrow, cowering
in fear of a fictionalized past that has sworn
revenge on the far-fetched future.
Such are the menu options for consciousness,
three dimensions three tenses three personal
pronouns and a pocket full of tissues.
The choices are ours, to run and hide
or to stand and fight, with possibly a third
option still grooming on the side.
Regardless of the ultimate method and final
forage for fruit, though, just remember that we
should all be civil, and polite, and seek our highest
common denominators, not sink to our lowest…

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