You'd Think We'd Have Learned

I sit in class and stare out the window
When the sky is an enticing blue.
I see the trees, fingers stretched upward
Swaying slightly in the wind
Crying for the heaven they cannot have.

Humans are trees too,
Grown from the dust
Thinking tall thoughts
Yet sighing and bending
When we cannot reach what we ache for.

I think I can understand the frustration
Of the tower of Babel
And then I catch sight of Ross Hall-
I see the flurry of contractors and architects
Pencils scurrying faster than final midterm minutes,
All the people planning and building
Yet their work ending more stunted
Than a bonsai tree, yet also changed by a will
And some hefty pruning shears.