Teen Ink

we evolved from nothing.
given only our ground as platform
we struggled to walk on two feet
watched a ball of light rise and set on
either side
of something we eventually named “horizon”
and a moon that changed shape from crests into spheres
come nightfall

we were given plains
empty and vast never-ending in each direction
and rolling rock
glaciers of ice toward our northern pole
and strobes of heat at our south

we were given life
in the composition of creatures, humans,
and breath
and chose names for the bodies of water
that separated our continents –
titled them Atlantic, Indian, Pacific
and divided further into cities (Singapore
and Rome)
areas and territories based on factors
such as jewels and belief, color and race

fed ourselves from the soil we were given
and swallowed fruits from seeds where clementines grew
perplexed but without hindrance

began to untangle dialect
record history on the bark (the browns of trees)
and make what little we knew then known now
began to build
to use two god-given hands to form structures and stability
for our children’s children from irons and ores
with hopes of moving society forward (and to survive) and did just that

that and more and continued to make

establish government and before or after
all of this

decipher the difference between days
declared Sunday a day of rest and worship

and found ways to manipulate language to form poetry or song
twisted fate and misled death into thinking
“it wasn’t its time”

And to think – we have evolved

From nothing into this