Nancy Scott McBride’s most recent poem to appear here was “The Exception” (August 2018). 

Sapiens
By Nancy Scott McBride

Most of us no longer think it’s okay
to enslave others of our kind.
We’ve made great strides toward
feeding the hungry, curing the sick,
and ending many of the ills that plague us.
A growing number are looking at
other life-forms on Earth and working
to make things better for them.
Some understand that everything
is connected, and we will survive
as a whole or we won’t survive.
We’re getting better.
Trouble is, we’re still fouling our nest,
and the negative effects are everywhere
in rising temperatures and rising seas.

It’s late in the day,
night is coming,
and too many of us are
fiddling while Rome burns.