PRAYER IN MY POCKET

 

cabindepot.com photo

There is a prayer in my pocket
for Alberta, where a hundred wildfires
out of control (in early May!)
are chasing people and animals
away from their habitats,

and for B.C., where rapid snow melt
and raging rivers are flooding,
so more beings will be losing
their safe place in the world.

There is a prayer in my pocket
- albeit one not full of hope -
that legislators will hear the warnings
that each year is hotter than the year before,
that all of this will not get better
without enormous change.

I keep waiting to hear the words
we need to hear
and take the actions we so need to take
- lower emissions now! -
but think I might pray for another 70 years
for those in power
to care.

There is a prayer in my pocket
for the wild ones,
who do not get a voice or a vote,
who flee the fires and floods,
in terror,
who are losing so much more
than we are,
and who have done
no wrong.