“Transcend” by Christina Knowles

Did you ever wonder

About the trees, the flowers, and the seas?

Not just to use and plunder

Thinking we are so much more than these?

Did you ever wander

Through the forest of many creatures rife?

Did you stop to ponder

In the night, what animal builds his life?

Did you ever ponder

The living, the breathing of everything around,

The flutter of feathered wings, the sacred honor

Of crunching leaves of scarlet scattered on the ground?

Do you ever wonder

What the sleeping dog dreams?

Is he chasing squirrels in a field over yonder?

Or romping through crystal clear streams?

Does the elephant love her child

Stolen from her care?

Chained and defiled

She mourns her loss with a tear.

Did you ever wonder

Why humans feel superior?

Stripping lands and torturing under

The belief that all else is inferior.

Do you feel the need to plunder?

Destroying forests to supply

The cities of man; we tear asunder,

Building skyscrapers to pierce the sky?

Do we worship the ability to destroy?

We speak of intelligence;

It’s just a clever ploy

To justify our negligence and squander Earth’s inheritance.

Why do we build a pedestal, and climb into the seat,

Claiming we have a soul, and other beasts do not?

Privy to the secrets of an afterlife replete

In rewards for destruction with their blood we bought?

Do we ever wonder

Why we’re comfortable with our thoughts

Of eternal days unnumbered

While they turn to dust in their plots?

Did we ever consider

We are one and the same?

Energy reconfigured

Just another creature’s frame?

Born of the earth,

Siblings of the land

With no separate worth;

No destiny is planned.

Did you ever wonder

If it’s time to transcend?

Wake up from this slumber

And begin to comprehend?

We are all a part of another

So end the devastation, and instead defend

Those at our hands who suffer

And begin to make amends.

—Christina Knowles (2015)