O say but can you hear,
Above all the chatter?
Kindly place your ear near,
Does but one life matter?

So many live and die,
Too much to ever count.
No one can specify,
Precisely the amount.

Our lives will come and go,
With beings far and near,
But we may never know
The reason we are here.

A frog croaks in the night,
His universe, the pond.
Can a life so finite
Have a meaning beyond?

Does every grain of sand
Matter to all the stars?
Does what we understand
Concern the ants on Mars?

Do the fish in the sea,
Or the birds in the sky,
Know about you and me,
Care if we live or die?

For ev’ry red balloon,
There’s infinitely more.
We may recall the tune,
But do we know the score?

(Published by Lone Stars Poetry Magazine, March 2023)