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A Slight Preponderance

We construct so many ugly things —
the tacky, jerry-built and tumbledown.
The motel strip that draggles into town,
malls thrown up in a frenzy
of architectural cliché, daubed-on facades.
The big-box stores, big boxes
stranded on a raft of parked cars.
Space assaulted by our careless need
to fill it up.

At least they won’t last, we think
morosely. Thirty years and they’ll collapse.

Much that is beautiful will not last either.
But beauty has, we hope, a slightly better chance.

That’s all it takes. Matter maintains
only the tiniest advantage over anti-matter
— one particle in a million million. It’s still enough
to fill a universe with stars.

In all the ephemeral collisions
between humanity and space, there’s hope
we might achieve a balance on the side of grace,
a slight preponderance of beauty.

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