Legacy

Apollo 8 saw it first whole and complete from space.

Beautiful yet fragile and put in its place.

A jewel with gentle white clouds hugging continents and oceans.

Home.

Vulnerable.

And you, you fell in love at first sight.

Infactuation and then a deeper love grew, like a gardener's

Doing and loving what makes the garden thrive and last.

Treading carefully among the plantings watering, weeding, re-planting.

All the while sunning yourself in the surroundings.

But others are here, trampling delicate plants underfoot.

Strangling life.

Breaking and crushing the flowers' heads.

But you, you tread carefully.

A gentle hand cultivating.

Part of the reason why life continues.

Though your own time here be short, and your heart in the end gives out...

Let the clouds wrap themselves around you

Of all the things you were...

The best...

Was a friend of the earth.

By Patrick Creamer

Patrick wrote Legacy as a leaving gift for his colleagues at Friends of the Earth. A one-time teacher with a wife and two young children - he raised £2,000 for charity last year by running in the London Marathon.

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