the pragmatic bleeding-heart manifesto in poetry

you don’t plant a seed
only because you think you’ll
live to see it in full bloom
or because you think that your
grandchildren will do the same
if you think those are the reasons
why a person would ever plant a seed
you’ve lost the plot of being alive
in a miasma of fear and greed

you plant a seed because
you had trees to shade yourself beneath
when you were young and
the future deserves that joy too
the future deserves even more than you had
you love the feeling that it gives you
that it gave you for your brief moment here
all you can think of is that
more people deserve more of this
how lucky I was to have trees!

you plant a seed because
you were able to plant a seed
knowing you will never see that future
but knowing that the future deserves
even more than you had
that’s all