Wildfires Burn Across the Land

Vikki from Topaz

Slowly,

they move across the land,

hooves burned

by the wildfires.

They are the last two of their herd,

crossing a post-apocalyptic landscape.

They suffer,

because humankind

has not lived well

upon the land.

They suffer, 

because of us.

188 wildfires burn,

more each newscast,

gobbling forests, homesteads,

towns.

Towns evacuated, 

Thousands fleeing.

Populations on the move.

Wildlife with no home.

Wildfires roaring their anger

at a planet

that is burning, flooding, storming

its distress.

We suffer, and we understand.

The animals suffer,

and they have no voice but ours,
to speak for them,

no future, for them, for us,

unless humanity wakes up.

And we have remained asleep 

40 years too long.

Horse bones

Vikki From Topaz

For Sumana's Midweek Motif prompt: Movement

My heart is breaking for animals, domestic and wild, caught in the wildfires. Humans suffer, and we understand. We have resources, cars in which to flee, we have a voice, we can get help. The animals only know suffering, terror, pain, a fiery death. Because of us. Most of these wildfires were started by human carelessness. Unbelievably, the woman who took these photos and the video linked below was behind a car where a woman TOSSED A CIGARETTE BUTT out of the window. Right in the middle of the wildfires. There is truly no excuse for this kind of  stupidity. Vikki was in Ashcroft, rescuing horses.

The cost of cleaning up after climate change incidents will be so much greater than switching to clean energy would be. But political will seems oddly lacking. Holding onto power seems to be more important than survival of the planet. Capitalism is accustomed to one way of doing business and appears utterly unwilling to even think about changing. Our proverbial goose is cooked unless serious change happens immediately. A huge iceberg in Antarctica just broke off. We are watching history, folks. I pray it isn't our last chapter. But if it is, Mother Earth will live on, and wild creatures will thrive once again. Faint comfort for all those suffering now across the globe. If civilization survives, future generations will look back at us and consider us insane and/or woefully ignorant.

Here is a link to a short video about the horses in the above photo. It wouldn't upload for me. LINK