But Now, I Do Know Everything

Me of just two years ago,
Why were you so foolish?
Why did you think you knew everything?
There were so many people who had more experience than you.
There were people two grades ahead of you who had the same
experiences that you were going to have.
Why did you think that you were so much better
than them, that you could avoid the stress they had?
It was a statistical certainty that you were not
to be so much smarter than those of the years above you
that you would be able to avoid the fate to which they had succumbed.
Your idiocy has taught me many lessons, and now,
I am not nearly as foolish as you were, little child.
I have learned what you did not know.
I have spent years after I was you, understanding
what you did not and experiencing
so many new things that now,
now, I do know everything.

Other Poems: "When Humans Do Change The World"; "Hungry"

We don't have to worry about the world.

We don't have to worry about the world.
Let's burn that coal and live vicariously.
We can live unsustainably.
Who needs to be an environmentalist?
The world gives us sickness and vile diseases.
Who needs all the troubles it gives us?
Who needs all the benefits it gives us?
The world gives us water and healthy sustenance.
Who needs to go on living - existing?
We will die uncontrollably.
Let's frack that gas and party uninhibited.
We don't have to worry about the world.
We're already doomed.

Hungry

I am hungry. This annoys me.
Lunch is not for hours yet.
While I want to, I can't eat now,
so I guess I should not fret.

Periods pass. Later now.

Need food. Want now.
Lunch soon. Not now.
No food. Me sad.
Can't wait. Want bad.

Lunch now.

Food.

Chew, chew, chew... swallow.

I am satiated by my consumption of food,
and my fluency has now increased.
I apologize if earlier I was rude,
and abbreviated in my speech.
When I am edacious with respect to my eating,
and when I have built up a large appetite,
I tend to get somewhat animalistic -
I'm still human, even at my intellectual height.

When Humans Do Change The World

(1)   We
(2)   began
(3)   slowly
(4)   as cavemen
(5)   and then we developed agriculture.
(6)   Then we developed civilization,
(7)   but we still used our resources wisely.
(8)   Then came the Greeks, who developed culture and all that comes with it,
(9)   and the Romans, who developed the military and managed to form an empire, until it collapsed
(10) and all of that ended.
(11) Then, there was a period where things went slowly,
(12) when developments were far and few between,
(13) until the Renaissance, at which point things began to pick up again.
(14) Then came the industrial revolution, at which point things began to get faster and faster and we were developing more and more
(15) and we came out with technological development after development, exploiting our resources and killing off species and destroying ecosystems, but we didn't care about that, because we could become sustainable later, and so we came up with radio, television, the Internet, iPods, and then we changed the climate
(16) and it all stopped.

You'll see.

Bags packed, clothes away.
Phone, wallet, Ipod - 'kay.
You sure you have everything?
Hey, no need to snap at me!

I KNOW you've been away before.
I KNOW you've flown across the world.
But still, you know, can't check too much
for what you choose to bring and such.

You've been away for weeks, and farther,
but this is tough for me and your father.
This time it's like you're gone forever -
like you've died, and gone into the ether.

I know we'll have Facebook and also the phone,
and of course there's your younger brothers - your clones.
But still. I worry. Can you blame me?
Wait 'till your own children go - you'll see.

Now you call me silly.
Now you say I worry.
But many years later, when you're older,
grown to love them, and expect them -
Then, when you love them most,
they'll leave.
And then you'll see.

What Stays Behind Afterwards

           appear in the middle of an infinite timeline.
We live our childhood, the time when we sniff
every rose, because every one is new, and
we are far from death, with nothing to fear.
Then we grow up, and have lives to manage, where
every detail is important, because this is our opportunity
to make something of ourselves. We have to make
our mark, and eventually, we will be old, and then
we will be fast-approaching the ends of our lives,
and by that point it will be too late, because,
suddenly, even though time will continue on
without us, suddenly, we