Dear Earth

The Elaho River

Photo by Jon Merk

Dear Earth,

You look so beautiful

this morning,

with the sun shining on you

out of a cerulean sky,

and the white frost

coating all the branches

and grassblades

like diamond etchings.

But my eyes dont have

to travel far

to see

where we have gouged

your hillsides,

laying them waste

taking the best timber,

leaving the rest to rot,

wasted,

on your bleeding slopes.

I watch the news

and see pollutants

in your waterways

poisoning the water,

the marshlands

and all who dwell therein.

I see the ocean warming up

and its teeming marine life

threatened

as food sources and plankton

disappear.

I watch humans

on the screen,

each seeing otherness

instead of shared humanity,

fighting everywhere,

discord and hatred

like angry boils

on living skin

that longs only for peace

and an end to pain.

I see multinationals

to whom greed and profit

are the bottom line,

who spare not one thought

to the cost to the planet

and its people,

to the future

of the earth

and humanity itself.

I see leaders who need

to legislate tough measures,

who are cowed by the multinationals,

and whose hands are tied by the opposition,

so we all watch as the situations worsen,

we all grow faint with apathy,

like the frog in the pot of water,

slowly heating up,

feeling helpless,

trying to hold onto hope,

while nothing changes.

We need a grass roots uprising

all over the planet.

We need to make our leaders hear

our voices

in numbers they cant ignore.

We need to defend you,

planet that we love,

upon whose heartbeat we live,

whose air we breathe.

You are speaking in

as loud a voice as you can

as the water levels rise, the tundra melts,

distress, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires,

tidal waves and floods are everywhere.

How much louder can you howl?

Even the whales know

they are on the road to death

while the powers that be

continue to live as if it is still 1950

and "jobs" and "profit"

are the only

words that count.

I look at your beauty

and could almost be lulled

into thinking

that  we will all be okay:

One more day

on Planet Earth

with sun shining off

the snowy peaks,

mountains standing tall

with endurance

as they have for millenia,

rivers rushing through the rapids

and away,

the ocean waves rolling in,

with a voice that has sung for longer

than the land masses have been alive,

singing us all into sleep and false security:

"it's all the same,

it's all the same",

while the earth and sea

heat up,

the waters rise,

and the ozone depletes,

all predicting a future

too terrifying to look at

but which must

be looked at.

Dear Earth,

I so love you

and want to save you.

But I need six billion

other voices

joined to mine.

Bring us,

whichever way you can,

the thousand years

of peace

that have been promised.

Bring peace

and sanity

into the hearts

of Man.