On A Day Like Today

By John I. Blair

On a day like today
A fish crawled from a pond
And breathed;
A fiery planetoid
Impacted Yucatan;
Mammals suckled young.

On a day like today
Cave artists undertook
Ten thousand years
Of hands and deer and bison
Drawn with ocher in a reed,
A sooty brush, a bone.

On a day like today
The pyramid of Khufu rose;
The monoliths at Stonehenge
Tilted inch by inch into the earth;
The Great Wall began to march
Across the Mongol mountains.

On days like today
Millions fell in battles
Over causes since forgotten
Or discredited;
Immortal books were written,
Epic songs sung.

And today, a day
Like no other day yet seen,
We still sit and wonder
If our lives will matter;
The simple answer –
No life ever did not matter.

©2012 John I. Blair