Will Man be able to synthesize 
A replacement for the trumpeter swan? 
When the wild lake's last shrill laughter dies, 
Aren't we assured that the loon is. gone? 
An unnamed fish, recently discovered, 
Has had its future compromised; 
Man may already have wiped out the species 
Before it was taxonomically recognized! 
Others , too, in the same vein 
Face extinction's all-final tomb; 
The pupfish, key deer, sandhill crane 
Totter on the brink of doom. 
What gives us unquestioned right 
To eliminate any one of these? 
Are we so important in His sight 
That He will condone such atrocities? 
Why mus t Man demand dominion 
Over his cohabitants of this sphere? 
Why must he force on them his opinion 
That they are no longer needed here? 
Mus the return them to the dust 
From which he himself arose? 
Wasn't our role a caretaker's trust, 
Not the, dominion we now impose? 
The diversity law has been ignored. 
It says this Earth-ark would better be 
The more kinds of life we have aboard, 
And the less likely catastrophe. _ 
Mus t Man continue to snap each species' straw? 
Is he too blind to see 
That it is not his, but Nature's law: 
The greatest good is in diversity! 
-- Ezra Ownse 
(By permission of the author) 
vi 
