still here (poem)

we are all here. from the day the earth took her
first breath on the water, drops of sand

shoals, the amazed waves and fire-lit
coals in the belly of wood - we are

still here. no-one got out. no prayers
rose a steaming path to heaven. no

your precise disdain, nights spent indulging or denying
your body-temple, curled like incense, rising

is new, is old, is dying like the leaf
the planet, and you

still meditating, dreaming of escape.
you are still here.