Poetry | Constrained

Constrained

©2018 Vernon Miles Kerr, vernonmileskerr.com

Constrained as we are,

Between the blackness of the womb and that of death,

Between the poles of this spinning ball of rock-and-brine,

‘Tween space’s vacuum and the crush of ocean depths,

Between the infinite and the infinitesimal,

Between Now and Later–

It seems we should be more humble,

More tentative,

More resigned to our limitations,

More accepting of our impotence

Before the feet of a sprawling Universe

So vast that light itself travels as slowly

As a worm

Through wood.

Yet we plan such great plans of exploration

Of conquest,

Of looking outward, never in—

As if.