A is for acting like we have unlimited time left on this planet when we
almost certainly do not.
B is for being accustomed to a life heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
C is for caring enough to want to do something but not knowing how to
get the best bang for my buck.
D is for drilling for oil no matter what the impact on the ecosystem that
is disturbed by it.
E is for ecology and environmentalists, buzz words before
“sustainability“ came on the scene.
F is for feeling hopeless more and more frequently.
G is for “greenwashing,“ and in particular all those insidious little green
leaves on product packaging.
H is for hot house, which is what we are living in now.
I is for the ice caps melting as I write this.
J is for junk — all the junk floating in the ocean and laying all over
beaches all over this earth.
K is for knowing it’s a problem and choosing to ignore it.
L is for the leeching of lead into pipes that carry water needed by
Americans for drinking and bathing.
M is for making mountains out of mole hills, a favorite accusation of the
climate change deniers.
N is for not wanting to move to the moon or another planet.
O is for open wounds in the earth where reckless mining has been done.
P is for plastic, and how nearly every item sold in this country is
packaged in it, or made from it, and how these things lived on in
perpetuity...
Q is for questions about how we can continue to deny this reality and
kick this horrible time bomb down the road.
R is for recycling, and how the plastic industry let us to believe that the
recycling code printed on an object meant that it could be recycled.
S is for the horrible stink I first encountered on the New Jersey Turnpike
decades ago and what it represents.
T is for taking all this to heart and taking responsibility.
U as for understanding how all the elements of the earth are
interconnected with humans in a fragile life-sustaining web.
V is for victory over all the horrible wheels we’ve set in motion and how
I find it hard to envision.
W is for well-being, the well-being of the physical world and how that is
synonymous with our own.
X is for exasperation, which is what I feel when I see Humvees, stretch
limo’s, skies full of jet airplanes, power plants, and my own ecological
footprint.
Y is for you who are reading this, and what exactly you are and are not
doing about the problem.
Z is for the zest for change we need to nourish in ourselves and others.
Description
I’m hoping the poem speaks for itself.
Artist's Bio
I'm a continuing Ed student at PCC, and former part time instructor in ethics in addictions counseling.