Mother Earth

Your reaching ocean waves wash the shoreline
like blinks that release warm and bitter tears
they try desperately to cleanse,
defy unnecessary defeat
with a hard fought fight in the third round
when will the people you love so tirelessly, tire
of their plastic conveniences and casting off dreck?

The stacks of smoke tinge the air of the cityscape
like cigarette smoke leaves
the smoker’s fetid mouth
creating a stench no mint can cover
your city’s haze cannot be masked  
when will your learned children, learn
how to love breath more than GDPs and bottom lines?

The polar bear paddles alongside the small floes of ice
looking for a home to birth its young  
Through its wet nose and open mouth
It pants and blows and puffs
in frantic movement to and fro
when will your cherished mortals, care for  
the fragile habitat and the worth of your feral kingdoms?

Your buried dead of ages past cry out
from the exhaust of our four-doored yellow Ferraris
they decompose into our ambitions
and fuel our gluttonous appetites
they spew carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons
when will the power you entrusted to them, power
virtue instead of industries, vehicles, buildings and appliances?

The monarch butterflies are becoming extinct
their gentle flutter is like a song no longer sung
carried upon the wind they flew
to Mexico and Canada
mini mosaics of black and orange wings closed up like forgotten books
when will the elevated human race, elevate the tiny creatures that augment our dead-end flowered paths?