an atheist's take on "heaven"

"heaven" is the place
this world could be
if people weren't so busy
trashing it
to get to other
imaginary worlds...
or at least that's
the only heaven there
could ever REALLY be

how can you convince people
to resist global warming
when the next century
will find them
on a cloudy private island
complete with sauna
and jet-skiis?

why should anyone
be truly moral and ethical
when all that means
is obeying that Jewish tome
praising genocide and salted lands,
tempered by the contradictory poetry
of a crazed ESP healer?

why should we drive cautiously
when a head-on merely
means a re-incarnation
as a lioness, a chief in a tipi,
or a monk under an eastern sun?

I tell you:
during this brief window
while the inquisition is shut down
and the doors to the dungeons
of various but monotonous orthodoxies
are flung open,
we should run into the sunlight
and plant seeds of reason...
so that liberated truth
may emerge victorious
in the coming contested season