Grinning acorn skulls,
  and leaf corpses rot beneath 
bone dead tree limbs.

Haibun 2

John Borneman

 


It's an eat or be eaten world.

No offense. Just that cycle of live thing. 

A coneflower is eaten by grasshopper, who falls prey to watchful blackbird, who is pounced upon by cat, who ends up dying in the shade of an old barn where wild daisies grow.

Humanity, in their evolutionary tromp through time learned that lesson well. Faced by predators larger, faster, and armed with big sharp pointy teeth, we had to be smarter, fiercer and more determined to kill lest we be killed. 

Otherwise there'd be no one around to admire my Dad's photography and my insightful wit. 

What really concerns me is how we will finally find the ability to shake our evolutionary imprinting that pits us against ourselves? We need to move on beyond our constant search for power over those weaker than us. If Darwin wants to really help out, arrange for an evolutionary path that doesn't force us to debate the necessity of war or the policy of security versus  freedom.

Like I said. It's an eat or be eaten world.

But that doesn't mean we don't have a choice. For unlike the grasshopper, we can choose to let a coneflower remain a coneflower. Enough extra flowers in the world and who knows what might happen.


To purchase framed and matted photography such as those shown in these haibun pages contact me

Photograph copyright Charles Borneman Jr., words and poetry copyright John Borneman

 

related links: Basho, Ray's Web