(Photo: Sif/Aaron Seaman, Colorado Rockies, 2017)

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Thursday, 9/2/21, 12:36 pm, Magnolia Overlook, Seattle

For decades
I have assumed
that the constant screaming I could feel
was the painful death of the summer
strangled slow and long by hungry autumn’s tendrils
and eventually succumbing to winter’s poison bite.

Long have I suffered a grave misunderstanding—
for it was never the seasons
but rather our entire earth crying out for help.

Our towering pines
remote granite peaks
and lapping seas
singing ancient songs of change eternal
and danger to come.

As species become extinct
endangered evolution sparks calls to action
while sentient humans focus inward
trapped in tombs of our own making.

Glaciers melt.
Sea levels rise.
Storms flood New York subways
destroy New Orleans (again)
and wash Malibu stars into the deepest Pacific blue…

Raging fires commit devilish acts of deicide,
insatiable as they devour her majesty’s Ponderosa crown.

Heat waves kill our grandparents.

Arctic blasts cripple vital infrastructure.

Miami tries to keep her head above the encroaching Atlantic.

Years go by.
Decades of inaction
despite the cosmic collective wailing for bitter justice,
violent peace.
For an end to the madness,
a plan, action:
Not seasonal. Not passing.
Bold action in the interest of our planet and all her charges.

Because we—only we—are capable of upholding the mantle, fulfilling our duty to silence the screams of our Mother Earth.