Warning: Distressing to Animal Lovers: Shay and Toni: don't click

Heartbreak
as the small koala cries,
as the burning others are declared
"functionally extinct"
in this world that
greed has made.

I feel the burning
in my soul.
I hear the creatures' cries
in my haunted dreams.

We are awakening
to this nightmare we have made,
but we are awakening too slowly
as the flames lick through
three continents,
as the icecaps melt,
polar bears find nowhere steady
to place their feet,
their corpses just skin and bone
where the starving creatures fall.

I want to leave you hopeful,
in the planetary peril.
But we are awakening
too slowly,
friends.
The koalas all
are burning.



I'm sorry for this dismal poem but the koala's suffering just does me in. I saw a news photo of a polar bear who had starved until it was literally skin and bone and died where it had crawled to. A horrible death. I can't bear how slowly governments and humans are responding to the crisis. Venice is underwater, three continents are burning. Climate crisis is not a discussion any more. It is here. And not enough is changing.  We are waking up too late.

for Susan at Midweek Motif: Awakening.    Sigh.