Global Warming

When his ship first came to Australia,

Cook wrote, the natives

continued fishing, without looking up.

Unable, it seems, to fear what was too large to be comprehended.

—Jane Hirshfield

 

Thank you Jack Spicer.

For Lila.

Write this.

I would rather build a little casita in Taos

collect landscapes and sing to stars

and believe I am keeping you safe.

I have spent a life meditating, medicating

detaching, unbraiding unplugging

freedom is unburdening

only to realize we are bound to each other

and the birds pecking at poisoned nectarines,

ripe and tender on our branches.

 

Write this.

The moment I first held you

and ran my finger along your tiny wrinkled foot

I felt a grief like granite

heavy hard dark

I wanted to crack it with tears

I brought you into a world

that births and breaks as it always does

and maybe always will but

You were so tiny and the world so mean

I couldn’t cry.

 

Remember this.

When you were three you said,

Why do people pollute?

I said, what do you mean?

And you asked why we built roads

and telephone poles

and billboards

and drove cars

and to you, at three,

looking out the window it looked like a big waste

and you asked me where there

were islands without humans.

 

Repeat this. I will fight for what I love.

The UN report this morning told us we are like ants

who won’t look up.

Busy building pipelines

fracking, drilling, mining

maybe if we’re fast enough we will devour it all before the Chinese

or the poor people (who brought it on themselves)

and we will save ourselves.

Faster, Men, faster.

The earth is warming.

We have 20 years to get the goodies.

 

Child, please look up.

Make noise and scream if you have to.

Doesn’t need to be polite or pretty.

As long as there is something left to fight for,

I promise not to retreat to poetry and counting stars.

—Kirsten Mundt