The Elaho River
Photo by Jon Merk
Dear Earth,
You look so beautiful
this morning,
with the sun shining on you
out of a cerulean sky,
and the white frost
coating all the branches
and grassblades
like diamond etchings.
But my eyes dont have
to travel far
to see
where we have gouged
your hillsides,
laying them waste
taking the best timber,
leaving the rest to rot,
wasted,
on your bleeding slopes.
I watch the news
and see pollutants
in your waterways
poisoning the water,
the marshlands
and all who dwell therein.
I see the ocean warming up
and its teeming marine life
threatened
as food sources and plankton
disappear.
I watch humans
on the screen,
each seeing otherness
instead of shared humanity,
fighting everywhere,
discord and hatred
like angry boils
on living skin
that longs only for peace
and an end to pain.
I see multinationals
to whom greed and profit
are the bottom line,
who spare not one thought
to the cost to the planet
and its people,
to the future
of the earth
and humanity itself.
I see leaders who need
to legislate tough measures,
who are cowed by the multinationals,
and whose hands are tied by the opposition,
so we all watch as the situations worsen,
we all grow faint with apathy,
like the frog in the pot of water,
slowly heating up,
feeling helpless,
trying to hold onto hope,
while nothing changes.
We need a grass roots uprising
all over the planet.
We need to make our leaders hear
our voices
in numbers they cant ignore.
We need to defend you,
planet that we love,
upon whose heartbeat we live,
whose air we breathe.
You are speaking in
as loud a voice as you can
as the water levels rise, the tundra melts,
distress, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires,
tidal waves and floods are everywhere.
How much louder can you howl?
Even the whales know
they are on the road to death
while the powers that be
continue to live as if it is still 1950
and "jobs" and "profit"
are the only
words that count.
I look at your beauty
and could almost be lulled
into thinking
that we will all be okay:
One more day
on Planet Earth
with sun shining off
the snowy peaks,
mountains standing tall
with endurance
as they have for millenia,
rivers rushing through the rapids
and away,
the ocean waves rolling in,
with a voice that has sung for longer
than the land masses have been alive,
singing us all into sleep and false security:
"it's all the same,
it's all the same",
while the earth and sea
heat up,
the waters rise,
and the ozone depletes,
all predicting a future
too terrifying to look at
but which must
be looked at.
Dear Earth,
I so love you
and want to save you.
But I need six billion
other voices
joined to mine.
Bring us,
whichever way you can,
the thousand years
of peace
that have been promised.
Bring peace
and sanity
into the hearts
of Man.
