Must come a time when all we see
Is nature cast in steel?
No creatures left,
Wan zoo…bereft,
Of means to bless or heal.

A zoo without a life or soul.
A sterile, puerile space.
Stale mockery,
Pale mimicry
Of life’s abundant grace.

Perhaps we’d still post happy smiles,
Just pass another day,
Our children shriek
Amidst their bleak
Though bright facade’s decay.

I fear too late we’d mourn that choice,
Too late we’d count its cost.
We’d come to rue
Our metal zoo,
And grieve at all we’d lost.