There's No Greater Risk Than Being Born

[shanmonster]

There’s no greater risk than being born.

You don’t get any say in the matter.
Mitosis happens without permission,
splitting you in pieces again and again to make you whole.

You emerge into a world destined to chew you up,
either slowly like the mouths of starfish,
Creeping slowly around you,
dissolving you by increments,
or quickly with the slashing, stabbing teeth of the Orca.

You can only evade being eaten for so long,
But that time spreads ahead of you like a banquet.

You eat life and life eats you,
And you go around and around until eventually,
If you’re lucky, you become your own namesake.

The permafrost remembers this,
Even as it melts,
Belching half-digested methane.
The forests remember, and their burning rages
Fills our breath with their corpses,
Extending the long night while heating our numbered days.

There’s no greater risk than being born.