We Are Mere Guests

We are humans.

We often think what we see now

was always like that.

Nope — it was very different.

Here where I live,

in suburban Southern California,

I see ocean, desert,

and chaparral biome —

side by side, like a mosaic.

But millions years back,

this was a shallow sea,

and tropical forest too.

Marine fossils are evidence,

Mammoth and saber-toothed tiger,

long extinct, roamed.

Above, you see eroded sea stacks

in the Pacific Northwest.

The ocean had eaten,

major chunks,

what remains today

may not remain tomorrow.

Even we will not last,

for we are mortal guests.

We are here on short stint,

to marvel, to add value,

to show kindness and empathy —

before we vanish

from the face of Earth.