Our Planet
On this planet, far away, long ago, when dinosaurs roamed,
there was a greenness in the place that you smelled and tasted,
like honey on the tip of your tongue.
It was a greenness so bright that it overwhelmed you,
knocked you over, tickled your senses, and invaded your psyche.
There were bees pollinating plants and flowers everywhere.
All this, when the world was young.
Now, dinosaurs and millions of other species are, at best, just fossils in the ground.
You smell and taste the pollution, and the green is shrinking
as trees and rainforests die.
The oceans are drowning in plastics, the earth is getting hotter,
and the planet is turning brown.
Some greenness is still here and the bees are fighting to make a comeback,
and some water still runs clear.
We have to help our planet, not by what we do,
but by what we don't do.
If we stop putting trash in the oceans, and stop using herbicides,
protect our wildlife by eliminating poisons, and forget about pesticides,
we won't be dancing the happy victory dance,
but our planet just may still have a chance.
A Dead Whale
How much plastic can we find crammed inside the stomach
of a dead sperm whale in Indonesia?
They say it was eleven pounds, including a multitude of plastic cups
and even a pair of plastic flip flops.
You have to wonder if that was just his last meal.
Did he usually pass plastic through his system, and if so,
how did all that plastic make him feel
as he went around trying to do the normal things that sperm whales do?
Did he have stomach pains for most of his life,
and how would you like it if it happened to you?
We need to take the plastic from the oceans, from the places
where fish and whales live and eat.
If we could just find a way to dispose of plastic,
a way that doesn't pollute, it would be a marvelous feat.
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, and it taught us
how dangerous chemicals are, like no other book then could do.
It told us that while pesticides kill some bugs, they sometimes make bugs stronger
and actually fortify them and cause them to live longer.
It preached the dangers of DDT, and our government listened,
took it off the market and kept it from being made.
That was back when the government still cared about the citizens,
before government agencies were in the pocket of chemical companies,
before they were being paid.
Now, the chemical companies don't call their poisons by easy-to-remember names,
like DDT; today, they have multisyllabic names.
The chemicals are every bit as dangerous as DDT, or more so,
but with names we don't remember or understand,
they can easily sell their chemicals and continue to poison the land.
Rachel Carson, your book was a Bible of sorts, of things not to do in the wild,
a guide to show that pesticides and herbicides can get in our water supply
and commit genocide, causing more than just plants and insects to die.
We're killing the planet now.
We want to stop it from dying, but most of us don't know how.
Rachel Carson, I wish you were here.
We need guidance, advice, and we need it now.
Elephants
I fed an elephant an apple from my hand,
and it made me want to ride on the back of an elephant,
so I did. Then, I flirted with an elephant who batted her eyelashes
at me and made me laugh.
When I hear that people kill elephants,
I do not understand.
They do not look at these huge beasts
and see the strength coupled with the gentility.
They see only the ivory, the money,
and they miss the nobility.
If we want the poaching to stop,
we should develop a plan.
Perhaps part of that plan should be
that every child, everywhere,
should feed an elephant an apple from their hand.
One-Kill Poisons
The bobcats who used to walk up my driveway
and jump on the roof of my house
don't come here any more;
they can't make it up the hill.
They also appear to have mange and they're slow-moving now,
all because of that “safe” poison that only causes one kill.
Yes, the first animal, usually a rodent, who eats it, dies
and whatever eats that rodent will survive.
But what kind of life is it, with nasty gene mutations?
Certainly not one where animals can thrive.
So, let's outlaw the poisons before the wildlife is gone.
A well-placed trap also kills the first animal,
and once discarded,
the predator who eats the rodent, will live on.
Mother Nature and Father Time
Mother Nature and Father Time used to be a compatible pair,
helping plants and animals re-group and heal themselves, repopulate
and claim their own special niche in the world.
Then, Man came along to destroy things, poison the land, over-hunt, over-fish,
put trash in the oceans, poach animals, and pollute the air.
Mother Nature and Father Time could no longer work together,
no matter how hard they tried. Some plants died out, some animals became extinct,
and more species are getting that way.
They say giraffes may be gone in one more generation,
but how many people care enough to try and save them today?
So the young people can take the videos now of those animals that are fading away
and show them to their grandkids in forty years.
Then the kids will ask “where did the animals go?”
The grandparents will shake their heads in an “I don't know,”
or find something clever to say.
O Beautiful
O beautiful amber-waved plains and purple mountains cracking,
sinking deeper into the ground
because of all the drilling, the mining and fracking.
A land as noble as you please, with multitudes of birds and bees.
Well, the eagles and condors are endangered
but not extinct, just on the brink, and the honeybees are dying off
cause they like pesticides to drink.
For years we've been saying we'd fix all this,
but it's later than we think, so we argue about who should fix what when,
and how should we do it?
If we just spend billions and billions of dollars, it'll work,
it'll be fixed....nothing to it.
Or not. That's right. Money can't fix everything.
Maybe we need to have a plan:
get rid of pesticides and herbicides and stop using poison just because we can.
The chemical companies will hate that idea.
They're making millions or billions...that's what business is all about.
We'll ask them to help nature instead of killing it
by designing potions and lotions to help plants out,
help them grow big, healthy and green.
And the wild life? We'll manage it from a distance,
meaning most times we'll leave it alone.
If certain species get too populous, we'll allow a limited hunt,
or move them to a new home.
If a healthy environment is the ultimate goal, we need to stop fracking,
stop mining, stop drilling. Forget about oil and coal.
We'll use solar and electric to heat our homes...both very clean,
and we need to stop the deforestation. Start planting trees to make it green.
To me, it sounds like a good plan.
So, could it work? No, there's no way it can.
We've been raping and ravaging the earth for so long.
At first, we only took what we'd need,
then people started selling earth's products for big money
and nothing motivates humankind more than greed.
It'd be nice to rid ourselves of pesticides, herbicides and poisons
and clean up other parts of the environment too,
but companies and governments making money won't let us,
and they're the ones calling the shots, not me, not you.
Now if we kill off each other before the planet is gone,
and there's a pretty good chance we can,
then it'll have a few million or more years to heal,
and maybe the next species to rule it
won't be as destructive as man.
Big Game Hunters
They call themselves hunters, these young men wearing expensive clothes
and carrying big guns with large scopes that can kill animals instantly from afar.
Then, they pose with their dead trophies, smiles on their faces,
as another species nears the edge of extinction, for no reason except our own stupidity.
“Our stupidity? Did we force them to hunt?” you ask.
No, we let them hunt. We sold them the right to destroy wildlife at their leisure.
We watched it happen and did nothing.
A few spoke up in articles or poems, maybe even on a ballot or two,
but nature doesn't pay as much as those bent on her destruction.
Someone got paid and the rest of us stood by, hoping someone would save the animals,
save the planet, someone who knows about these things,
someone who's smarter than you or I.
Eliot said the world would end, “not with a bang, but a whimper,”
and I'm afraid he was right. We let the rich boys hunt the animals,
while we poison the land with herbicides and pesticides.
We worship money, so we let those who have money destroy nature
and whatever else they want, while we do nothing but stand by.
The Quiet Kill
For purple mountain majesties
sinking into the earth,
as the fabric of this once-great nation
is ripped apart from the mining and drilling,
that many members of Congress are willing
to license forevermore in order
to make a personal financial killing.
We witness the demise of the environment,
the death of the oceans, the decline of Earth,
and it all overtook us in a way
not exciting or thrilling,
but slowly, calmly,
like a cancer it moved,
the silent onslaught, the quiet kill.
Do we have recourse to change it,
or is it too late?
We don't know now…but later, we will.
Long Ago
Long ago, before the maelstrom began,
when much of the earth was fresh and green,
and people weren't starving all over...
do you remember that?
Do you remember how it was before the fabric of the earth
just ripped apart? It was like the earth cracked into
several large pieces and no one knew where they belonged.
At least, I didn't. Did you?
But that's now, and I'm talking about then, about long ago,
when we all had a chance or two
to save the world, save the environment, to save the earth
and all the animals; when plants gave off oxygen and still grew.
I remember it. Do you?