[W]e, whom the cosmos shaped for a billion years
to fit this place, we know it failed.
For we can reshape,
reach an arm through the bars
and, Escher-like, pull ourselves out.

And while whales feeding on mackerel
are confined to the sea,
we climb the waves,
look down from the clouds.

Marvin Levine, Look Down from Clouds: New Poems, New York, 1997