Granddad, with a passion for things that never changed
like spelling and arithmetic, would occasionally step back
to recount the achievements during his lifetime —
electric lights, the flying machine, the auto, computers 

This was before high altitude slacklining –    
    two brothers walking 2800 feet   
    on a one-inch balance beam of nylon webbing  
    over the gulleys of Yosemite
Before we carried weapons that killed, in a flash, dozens
     of our own countrymen, women and children
Before a man swallowed by a humpback emerged with his first thought  
     being that Matt Damon play him in the film version
Before we knew that our highly evolved brains would stumble
     toward Earth’s destruction, maybe Mars too if we don’t run out of time