In the Great Wild World
I know that one day I will surrender this contest with nature.
It may be by a sudden arresting stop or perhaps by the slow ebbing away of strength. But this I know: my body shall one day go into the ground, and back to dust. And this garden plot I’ve cleared and tilled and ordered will slowly go all back to seed. What once I cultivated and kept will be overgrown and wild again. She will reclaim what my muscle took by sweat and defended season by season with axe and hoe. In our contest, nature will finally win, and all the traces of my toil will disappear from the earth.
Yes, this I know. But today under the sun I still trim the vine and prune the branch, bending low over good tilled earth, with joy.
For I have been given life today and small dominion
In the great wild world.
