Mother Earth

You were always

the original scientist

that inspired the hearts of malleable

kids. They would be sitting in circles

of those numbered matts

with fiddling fingers

that only were (slightly) off task.

It once became Bill Nye,

the science guy, but not before

you were everything-

you build every single step I made

with little nature science kits

in the garage with my dad.

You created those fond moments

as I looked into those magazines cramped

with nature photography and facts

instead of ones with free perfume smelling pages

as I giggled what they smelled like.

I would imagine monkeys wearing perfume each time

and laughed internally before going back to the dream

you gave me.

My mom

loved you.

She would show me pictures and films of you

consistently.

You would show up 

so much so when you blew up on my corner of the news

I hoped that even in old age

so as those numbers popped up with and end date

my heart beat a little fast inside my ears

like  instinctively because

you were so much more

you should be still trailblazing

but I understand that you had a full life

that you offered to the public on a biodegradable platter.

Mother Earth, is that you?

No one else could be so impactful and meaningful

with limited time, so selfless and determined.

Right?

You're mother earth in a shell for us to comprehend.

Seeing you in your time with those chimpanzees

was magnificent

and I promise, as I flip through another magazine

(not the physics ones my dad would die for me to read)

I'll remember that the heart muscle that pumped blood

and passion into the vessel of humanity you became

is the one that created me;

(in the way)

my smile is from yours

and your memories for everyone,

90% for those chimpanzees.