A WELL TRAVELED HEART

Tag: environment

  • PORTEND

    PORTEND

    I saw a death’s head in the clouds
    with gaping maw and vacant eyes
    this morning as I walked my dog.
    I gave up portends long ago
    letting drink and daydreams go
    to choose instead right here, right now.
    But these clouds gave me pause.
     
    Helene passed us headed north
    slammed towns and hollows in the hills
    displaced the gentle mountain folk.
    A hundred people lost their lives
    in flooding never seen before
    the land I thought I knew so well
    became a soaked and battered shell.
     
    This earth no longer seems benign
    when storm and fire and flood abound.
    Volcanos spew and earthquakes shake
    we stand no more on solid ground. 
    With plastic waste from shore to shore
    man’s greed continues wanting more.
    Despite earth’s message loud and clear
    that she no longer wants us here.
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

  • NOTICE

    NOTICE

    A blue jay struts across the porch
    to forage in our planters.
    The red streak at eye level's a cardinal.
    White “ribbons” wrap the trees - plastic prayer flags
    to a God, gnome or Goddess unknown.
    A cuban lizard pulls one off
    the live oak on the corner.
    As I leave Johnnie’s Bakery,
    an Agama, his head and tail stripe
    the color of children’s aspirin,
    races ahead of me.
    Johnnie’s bread has the taste of hope
    hand-made, crusty, fresh.
    So too does the air, laced with scent of
    gardenia, magnolia and surf. 
    Beauty confounds the thought of so many dead.
    Mourners bereft of goodbye are blind
    with grief while fear heightens others'senses.
    How can such extremes of bliss and horror
    cohabit this planet?
    The return of wildlife, clean air and
    quiet seas make it clear
    this earth can shrug us off
    without notice.