Poem: ‘Postdated Earth Day Poem, 2035, Give or Take (To many politicians and the corporate world especially)’

Finally, no-holds-barred legislation is brought out.

Even erstwhile oil and gas lobbyists work for wind

and solar, righteously demand that no one must flout

“our only home.” Politicians and corporations contend,

boast even, that it is they who bring change about,

(“Renew by Renewables” or “We Shall All End

Up Fossils,” the latest slogans). In a way they’re right:

It is they more than any — though really most everyone

in one way or many played their part — turned day to night,

conjuring storms, the poles coming undone,

record mercury readings, fires, floods, drought,

cities wiped out, crops failing, shrouding of the sun,

contagious fogs, frogs and bees dying, the death

of millions. More than many others we owe them this debt.