Wild Woman Loses It Completely

These are the baby bears that broke my heart

Wild Woman has an achey-breaky heart,

because the forests are burning,

the wild creatures are suffering, and starving, 

and have no where to run.

A mama polar bear sits on 

a tiny piece of melted iceberg,

ten miles from land,

holding her cub in her arms.

They are waiting for death by starvation

on this planet we have hotted up

beyond sustaining, which is melting.

A young officer loses his job

for refusing to shoot two orphaned baby bears

in a world aflame and gone quite mad.

Government-Speak goes blah blah blah

forever

and nothing changes.

Emissions dont get reduced fast enough

or Enough enough.

They are still pushing the pipeline through,

still fracking,

even while we're running out of water. 

Are they INSANE?

Wild Woman just cant take it any more.

But.

The voice of the people rise  up in protest.

The young man will hopefully not lose his job.

Though it would be very satisfying

if his boss, who gave the order to shoot, lost his.

Wild Woman cannot lose hope,

even if we are all doomed.

Because hope is all she has to give,

along with love for Mother Earth,

who is so heartbreakingly beautiful.

I will go to the river,
drink in its cool green peace,
apologize to the trees

for how poorly we have cared 

for their sister forests,

for the incredible boiling soupy 

red hot mess we've made of living.

Two baby bears got saved this week.

I will hang my heart and my hope

on that.

For those who missed the news story, up-Island, a young conservation officer was sent to shoot a mother bear who was trying to get food from a porch freezer, since there isnt much food to be had in a burning-down forest, or a drying up river. Much of their habitat has been clearcut. The rest is now burning down - which means hotter summers, and more fires each year.

The officer was told to also shoot her two baby cubs, and refused, instead taking them to a wildlife recovery centre so they could have a chance at living, for which he was suspended without pay. During the course of this news story going viral, it was revealed they have "euthanized" (shot) 1900 bears on the Island in recent years - 450 a year - "because there aren't the funds to relocate them". Money, always money, never what is right.

People were outraged, and he will hopefully be reinstated, after an investigation. But after my distress over the forests burning, this story put me right over the top. It takes a lot for Wild Woman to lose hope, but I came close. The world is mad. BUT the people are not - and one has to keep believing their voices will be heard across the land, and we can turn this doddering, misguided, dangerously tipping ship of fools around. 

We are at the mercy of all these forces every bit as much as that mama bear holding her baby on a tiny bit of ice ten miles from shore. We just don't know it yet.