All of us are washed away by the perpetual flow of life over the eons.

A line of ants industriously carrying home
grasshopper parts is massacred with a spray
from a can of pesticide…yet life goes on.

A beautiful swallowtail butterfly, its yellow
and black gleaming in the sun, is snatched
from the air by a bird…yet life goes on.

The family dog beloved for fifteen years
grows too febrile to stand, is taken to the vet
and euthanized with weeping…yet life goes on.

A magnificent elephant is slaughtered by
poachers for its ivory, the sale of which will
feed their families for a year…yet life goes on.

The elephant, right whale, gorilla, snow leopard,
Florida cougar, giant panda, western giant eland,
black rhinoceros, northern hairy-nosed wombat,
tiger, and a myriad of other species now called
endangered may one day disappear from earth
by the hand of Man. A tragedy…yet life goes on.

An earthquake shatters a country, killing people
by the thousands, followed by famine and
pestilence killing thousands more…yet life goes on.

A popular celebrity overdoses on drugs; a top athlete
kills his image with sex; a Nobel Prize-winning
civil rights leader is assassinated…yet life goes on.

Your mother, then your father dies; a brother is
killed in the latest war; even your child dies in an
accident, finally your spouse dies…yet life goes on.

Eventually the day comes for your own demise.
You are mourned and buried, becoming just a
memory to be carried by a few…yet life goes on.

Life on earth is persistent and permanent, ever-
changing but ever-constant. Life on earth existed eons
before our brief stay and will remain eons after us.
We are mere drops of water in the flowing river of life.
Whether ant or elephant or Man matters not to life’s
perpetual panorama. Each dies…yet life goes on.