Only A Drop In The Bucket

I still recall that beautiful day
No clouds
A grinning sun
The Grand Canyon deserves every ounce of its namesake
Faithful flock to it
The Mecca of the Southwest
They come to gaze
Touch nature and see reflections of our common story

We hiked all over the southern rim that morning
Speechless
For a brief moment
We were part of something so much bigger
But for all the memories of that visit
My most visceral recollection

Mindless masses
Tourists littering empty water bottles
They lay like fallen soldiers
All over the dirt
Filling the garbage to the brim
And next to the trash can?
An empty recycling bin

I guess they were so blown away by the view
So amazed we hadn’t fucked up the Grand Canyon yet
They wanted to play their part in aiding and abetting
The blight of our planet

I could have screamed so loud
That those on the northern rim would have been rocked by the echo
Would have been brought to their knees
We acted strident and obnoxious
While we tossed a few bottles into the recycling
Hoping to make a point
But in the end we only had so much energy
I suppose we wanted to have enough left over to enjoy the Grand Canyon too

I am only a drop in the bucket
Sometimes even that is too much

Restless on this sultry desert night

distracted by thoughts
of your lips on my skin.

We smoke cigarettes under the stars
miles apart, insulated by
our separate lives

and I wish I knew
if you loved me at all.