(Click image to enlarge. Click play to hear a recorded reading.)
May this nightmare never come to full fruition. We must shatter the sickly seeds that have already taken root.
As I write from a smokey, hazy eastern Washington state; I wonder who could ever truly believe that chopping down trees, “thinning out” forests, would actually reduce our risk of fires. Dense forests hold in more moisture and create balanced, thriving micro-ecosystems–which are more resilient to fires. Just take a look around. Wander through a dense forest. And wander through one that’s been thinned, harvested, slaughtered. What feels right, healthier, balanced? I can assure you it’s not the one that’s been gutted out.
What sickens me more than the smokey haze is our current leadership’s audacity to insert an agenda of profit and greed as a solution to the effects of our already egregious state of environmental degradation. May we the people rescue our great country from the grips of this unspeakable, unfathomable, undeniable evil before it’s too late. May this poem be a warning of what is not inevitable, but of what may come to pass, should you continue to sit idly by, doing absolutely nothing for the Greater Good that has nurtured you.
may love and nature serve as our compass
🕊️🌲🕊️
Right? So ridiculous!