practicality

we all know
all the things
that we could be doing
to make a little bit better
all the things
that we are destroying
but here we are
pulling one another along
continuing to careen
toward destruction

and those brave ones
who fight so hard
to shed light on the
ways we waste, kill,
destroy ourselves and
this planet
still themselves
participate in this
dooming system

the problem is
that it is just
so much more practical
to swim upstream
in the same river
than to try to jump
over land, to carve
out new ones, or to
learn to fly

and so we all
do what’s most practical
because what we really
need to do is too
extreme, too alienating

so we keep doing what is practical
though we know
it is not