At some point in the history of the Universe
we began this ascent to humankind;
ironically, this step has led to the descent of the Universe,
as humanness becomes synonymous to destruction,
pollution of our waters and mountains,
our atmosphere and beyond.
Every meter of our existence
has been marked by extinctions,
first, of our brethren, and next of our resources.
The large disparity between
what we think makes us human,
and what we as humans do
hardly seems appropriate in retrospect.
For example,
the end of the most iconic decade of the 20th century:
"one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"
and yet, less than half a century later,
the gap size between one human and the other,
between my humanness and their humanness
is still extremely large;
we put a man on the moon,
but we have yet to put humanity
in the corporate heads' souls,
in the fascist dictatorships' hearts,
in the bigoted religious zealots,
the cynical, cold atheists
and the downtrodden, fallen generation.