B is for Bear

 

Marek Jackowsky photo

B is for Arctic Bear

whose landscape is melting,

too far to swim for food,

starving, wandering into villages,

or growing so thin that, when he

finally, mercifully dies, all that is left

is skin and bones.

B is for West Coast Bear, hungry

for lack of salmon, due to fish farms,

warming, polluted seas, and us.

B is for Bee - pollinator extraordinaire,

now in decline due to changing climate

which means crops may not be ready

at the right time for the bees

to do their work.

B is for bats and pangolins, who belong

in nature, but not in wet markets,

among 40,000 species kept

in horrible conditions teeming with disease,

markets closed during covid, then re-opened

as soon as possible after.

B is for Before money became the human God:

a flourishing earth, a population living

more closely with the land, a sweeter time

before Need got replaced with Greed.

B is for But: "leaders" who say

we must lower emissions BUT

we still need a thriving economy

and must build more pipelines.

B is for Belong: we, a species

who does not understand

that we are only one among

all the others whom we 

must Befriend before

we all are gone.

for Rajani's climate crisis poem series. 

On the news last weekend,  150 bears have been put down in British Columbia this year - because of development encroaching deep into their territory to make room for more and more of us. This loss of habitat and food flushes them into areas where humans live, which is often all it takes for them to lose their lives. Too bad humans believe we are meant to be the dominant species. Everything went wrong from that skewed viewpoint.