Plaintive Planet

As you were dreaming, clearing brush,
Grooming your brain for fire season,

All the living worked hard to stay
Lucky and alive, while the dead

Didn’t have to do anything
To stay dead, and word ghosts haunted

Most every living human head.
The wind roared around as Earth spun

And felt for its place in the stars,
Sending out pulses and robots

Crying, help us, help us, we are
Small and burning ourselves, burning.