The Birth of the Self-Made Man

She filled the grey with green --
She was the rolling hills, the tumbling rocks,
and the tide that licked the beach clean.
Mother Earth, she colored his world --
the saffron, the golden, the crimson blush
of the sun rising behind the eyelids of dreamers.

But not before to him she bestowed
the mallet and the pick;
And along this beach she sent him
with the task to dig beneath the sand

And for his entire lifespan,
there he did remain --
Giving care to muscle and sinew
as he carved himself from clay.