Arbitrary delineations
may divide humanity’s nations
but the earth will not be confined.
This planet will spin and shift
as she pleases.
Populations will ebb and flow
self-righteous, ungrateful, and diseased,
yet the earth, tortured and held captive
will force us to let go.
She will ultimately flick us off like we do ticks.
She has already begun
in cooperation with the sun
to demonstrate with great conviction.
This is the Anthropocene, the sixth major extinction.
For earth there is no distinction between pests
and we are the target
of our own progress, development and nuclear tests.
Some grieve for melted glaciers,
pine for deforested land,
plead to stop the tide of plastic
lay down against oil sands,
Some recognize the magnitude
of nature’s beauty, force, and wonder.
Volcanoes, birth, the spring, salt-sea,
metamorphosis, the crack of thunder.
All this care
matters as much
as a petal
falling through air.
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