Wild

We have fettered
this wild world,
shaped it to our use,
laid roads, built houses,
mined its secret stores,
circled it with our machines,
tamed it enough
that we forget to see
how terrible and beautiful
its wild weathers and creatures
can be.
But perhaps a crack of lightning
shatters the night,
or a tiny mosquito sends us running.
Or walking at dawn
on a country road,
a fox crosses our path,
stares at us for a moment,
calls to us across the mysterious border
of our mild and managed nature.
Then a thrill of recognition
may stir deep inside us,
help us to remember,
for a moment,
how beautiful
and terrible
is the wild
in us.

--Timothy Haut March 11, 2016