Such we are, a thinned people

stretched by demands

rival and incessant.

Sinister whispers of evil

are easiest to reprimand

even in acquiescence.

Self-promotion gleefully

disguised as virtue grandstands

its repeat of adolescence.

Suffering love with equal

tenacity calls for hands

to serve with time and presence.

Silky entertainment wheedles

the airwaves and band-

widths with perpetual effervescence.

See how Landscape Arch cradles

its own debris of sloughing sand-

stone—inevitable evanescence.

Landscape Arch in National Arches Monument is reported to be the fifth largest natural stone arch in the world registering a length of 290 feet and 6 feet thick at its thinnest point. Three times in the last thirty years large rock chunks have sloughed off the underside of the arch causing park officials to permanently close the official trail that used to pass underneath it.

Being stretched thin is a common metaphor in today's busy world. The things we choose to cling to have power to shape us. As well as does the very fact of choosing to cling to things simultaneously contradictory and pulling in opposite directions.