Her purple nylon jacket’s electric clash
against the beach kaleidoscope of brown
reminds of what we do to nature’s ground
when we invade the wild, all proud and brash
Our aim, it seems, is just to stir and smash
whatever nature’s grown and set in place
we shatter silences and crowd our living space,
acidify, pollute, and create trash.
We shift big rivers, level peaks, and bash
whole species to oblivion — they won’t return
we send CO2 aloft with only small concern
and like to think we act with fine panache.
And yet, we sometimes do a few things right
we dig in pits and bring some pasts to light.
— Marie Lundstrom
Anchorage
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