Good morning, Earth.
You are still here
harboring fragile lives
and all they hold dear.
We have forgotten our friendship,
stayed silent for too many years.
Silent while your virgin forests
were raped and cleared.
Silent while your fields became poison
farmed in chemical warfare.
Silent when your fields’ waters ran off
to your rivers where your fish died.
Silent as viruses you had hidden from view
escaped your now weakened ties
that once bound them unable to harm us,
your dear friends, causing alarms
which trounced us awake to our loss.
Silent as oil and gas heated your breath
bringing fire, floods and storms,
illness, war and death.
Silent no more as Putin threatens
your nuclear destruction.
Silent no more as Earth,our best friend,
faces total obliteration
after decades of our willful alienation
from you, Earth, our best friend.
The war we watch on our screens
began inside us sight unseen.
We were not looking within
when we should have been.
Silent no longer, but is the song we now sing
our death song, after staying silent too long?
Dear Earth, can we make amends
and make you, once again
our best friend?
I pray you say “yes”.
annarino writes 