clcouch123

Let Those Who Have Ears to Hear, Hear

(remembering the literal deaf hear better than most)

 

It’s odd to look outside

And see warm darkness

It should be colder, it’s December

In the immediacy of it, I don’t

Mind so much

It’s cool, my favorite kind of time

And whole cool days and nights are the best

But it feels like October

When October felt like August

It’s a good thing there’s no climate change

Those with no authority (the authority

of observation, anyway)

Have said so

 

But it is warmer

And after the convenience,

The warmer polar weather and

Elsewhere will turn catastrophic

There will so much evaporation from

The ground that in the air

There will be greater condensation,

Which leads to cloud cover

That can introduce another Ice Age

Earth had not been planning for,

Not yet

 

The irony of global warming,

We will have planetary winter

And unending

So what do we do?

You and I? I do not know

Listen to the scientists, the ones

Not in departments, ‘til they

(and they)

Are freed

Challenge corporations

Not because they are evil

But because they can be good

A new Earth-winter won’t serve

Them, either

 

Nations and industries will have to work

In tandem, and we mean it this time

We can make new jobs

And offer living wages, too

No real reason not to

 

If we remember that the Earth should be

Blue and green, mostly

All the other colors in their places

It really is a splendid sphere

That shines uniquely in the local heavens

 

If we decide that

Breathing air outside is good

Drinking water, too

Having grass and leaves to walk upon

Stones to climb

If we reason that a living planet’s better

Well, there is no better start,

Is there?

And now to join

Talk and move

Breathe and drink

Live as the Earth we need

And want

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Fenton, Michigan, United States

Frozen Lake