Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Awareness. Two youthful fish were swimming together, Deep into their normal fish-clicking language, When an older, wiser, member of their type Passed them by, nodding in the customary manner And clicking out the greeting, "How is the water?" The two nodded with respect and swam on. Suddenly, the one stopped the other and clicked out the query-- "What the hell is water?" When I lived for several years in Turkiye, I learned that one of the first greetings upon meeting Was "Su nasil?" (How is the water? -- meaning in your village.) The basic point which I am sadly and nervously learning, Is that our population is consumed with their own immediate needs, With no idea how important The surrounding world is for their very existence! People now-a-days have no thought, for instance, Of their companion plants-- These include grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees-- All, once vital to the indigenous people of the past. But little do the Moderns realize of their importance to them. Farmers and gardeners well know How the changing rainfall and heat affect their livelihoods. (Even planting temperature zones have been recently modified.) Ornithologists well know of the disrupted avian food supplies world wide. Ictheologists well know of decreasing fish populations, Affecting both 'man and beast'. Climatologists, like Yoda, see the changing overall picture. To top all this, especially according to geophysicists, Our planet may soon be subtracting a nanosecond from a future year Because of the slower rotation of the earth, Due to the melting north and south, and causing shifting General equatorial planetary mass distribution. Are we aware or even care about the fishs' 'water' around us? Or do we just continually bicker amongst ourselves About what may turn out to be exceeding bits of trivia? Frank Maurer 7 April 2024 0930 Hours.