Waiting, On Borrowed Time?

Wonderful photo by West Coast Protector

Ian McAllister at Pacific Wild

Wolf cubs and foxes
are waiting in their dens.
In the ocean, whales, dolphins,
plankton, coral, endangered salmon
are waiting, too.
Deep in the heart of the planet,
Mother Earth is waiting
midst the fracking,
as, above-ground, are the spirit bears,
and the few remaining
thousand-year-old trees.

The living water in lakes and rivers,
the tumbling waterfall,
the waves thrumming upon
the patient, waiting shore,
are singing their song of everness,
to a world with survival questions
only we can answer.

The eagle, sharp of eye
on the topmost scrag,
the dog chained in the back yard
for ten lonely years,
the people of Syria, of Palestine,
of the Lower East Side,
the young with their hopes and fears,
their dreams, their questions
about the future,
and the survivability of the present,
are waiting, in a world on pause,
on the cusp of
necessary transformation.

I take my place in line,
join the queue,
take my number, cast my ballot
for Mother Earth
and all her creatures.



[What are the creatures and ecosystems waiting for? For humankind  to get it right, and do the work of social justice and environmental restoration, of healing, of legislating reduction of our insatiable demands.]

for Isy's Out of Standard at Real Toads: to write a poem of waiting without saying what we are waiting for.