Seven billions strong

we inhabit this place

and eke and carve

out a life from this

territory.

Gnashing pinching and

grinding against each

other successive ebb

and swell of violence

and retreat on and on.

Races and nations

segregated by custom and

chance circumstance of

history. Some blighted,

impoverished, sickly and

attacked. Are we not all of

a one? Are we not the germs

on the body of the earth?