For Rick Park, in memoriam: a vilanelle

The Earth looks on with burning eyes
As into chaos, death and dark
Her children break from Paradise

While hungry planes transect the skies
Her heedless children speed and park
The Earth looks on with burning eyes

As prophets mew their futile cries
In empty theatres, spurned and stark
Her children flee from Paradise

Though ice worlds melt, and oceans rise
While drones and missiles seek their mark
The earth looks on with burning eyes

As Empire strives to vandalize
The moral curve of King's great arc
Earths children break from Paradise

And children wave their soft goodbyes
As other species disembark
Our Earth looks on with burning eyes
Her children gone from Paradise.