A Matter of Life and Dearth

I saw a lovely squirrel in winter branches
and realized once again it wasn't there.
Some branches have short thick sections,
and some curve around like S's.

Mine is a succint, unoriginal cosmology:
What we know, we don't. 
What we sense, we want or need to.
We have, say, money, but it is debt.

We have tools for happiness, but
they're broken. We have God,
but we dreamed him.  We have afterlife,
as this one's too constricting.

Our children love us, but it's that
we feed them.  We are all nearly famous.
And inwardly beautiful.  Interesting:
It just skittered to another tree.  Tree?

Julie K. Shavin 2009