Competition

Competition


It becomes clear to me, the Earth, this whole planet, is a dynamic ecosystem
striving for unobtainable balance.  If true balance could
be stabilized, there would be no push toward change,
adaptations, to move beyond a well entrenched sphere.
Without a strong push, a screaming need, disequilibrium
to the point of severe discomfort, life would be stuck in
stagnation.  We change because we have no choice.
It’s not even change or die, because death is change.
Death creates space for a new beginning, a repurposing
of indestructible energy.
Is all just rippling adaptation until the game ends when
the planet destructs from within or without?
Occasional brilliant displays, adept strategies, may
offer illusion of point,  meaningful calculation.
Each player gets caught up, enchanted in will to believe
we have real skin in a game, real points to be won
that bestow advantage.
Yet, if the goal is homeostatic satisfaction, of what
benefit is advantage, stacking up points that tip the scale?
My existence is simple, but not without events, angsts,
hungers propelling me forward.  If I could, would I stop,
in perfect balance, forever unchanging?  Would that be
different from death, the kind when energy has dissipated
to unbound chaos, unable to coalesce into a coherent whole?
My energy comes from the blood of organized life abandoned
to randomness of city streets, seeking individual balancings,
relief from hungers, emptinesses reaching for fulfillment,
to be whole.
If my wishes could muster power I would not wish them ill,
these fellow strangers, night travelers upon common roads.
I would wish us all better roads to a higher level of
disequilibrium.  Still strivers, but easier in our skins, enjoying
the view we move through, without malice.  Or would ease
leave us too dulled, too comfortable to endure violence
of Earth’s necessities of adjustment?
Elemental energies can be playful.  Their games are not
limited by pious rules of fairness.  They know no safe word,
respect no retreat or white flag.
We are born to the game.
The points are never tallied.
No one wins.