NonEssential

What is essential to me Might seem frivolous to you. Hours spent playing with a child Or caring for an elder are essential. Play, touch, love are things People need to live.

Fracking is nonessential Injecting chemicals to break the Earth Causing cancer, polluting streams, Cooking the world with gas Do we really need that? Yet gas companies keep doing it. COVID doesn’t stop them.

Seeds and gardens are essential Planting new life, growing food When I go by a community garden, Closed as nonessential, I wonder, do they even know where life comes from?

How essential is stuff? The latest phone, faster computers Are they worth dying for? Yet people die to produce them, Fight to buy them Evaluate their lives by their possessions.

Are missiles essential? Are warplanes? IDK, but their production continues While workers fall ill with COVID. Bombing must go on. Sanctions Must be enforced. Regimes must Be overthrown. People must Go without medicine.

I try to understand What essential means. Food, clothing, shelter Support, connection, purpose Freedom, creativity are essential to me. For others, maybe it’s profit. Maybe it’s power.

Maybe one person’s essential Is another person’s death. Disease doesn’t allow for greed. If we listen, it will teach us humility. What if we did what was essential: Fed people, housed them, Cared for Animals and plants, water and land? Created joy and beauty And let the rest go?