The air quality map shows red alert unhealthy
And if I venture outside into the haze covering the Northeast
Immediately the smell of smoke wrinkles my nose
Drifted all the way across the continent
What is happening three thousand miles away
Unprecedented inferno fires impossible to control
Another instance of the disaster that is capitalism
Now impacting everywhere on land and sea and air
Remembering the acid rain killing trees here in my youth
Caused by the Midwest coal burning power plants
An almost quaint regional smokestack problem so last century
When today the crisis is completely globalized
It's there in the news every day
If you do not look away
More and more pollution poisoning the earth
Every ecosystem is in trouble
Humans are part of nature
Dependent in ways we hardly realize
Until a cascade of bad surprises reveals
The dire urgency of total system change
Meanwhile I watch the fireflies in the July dusk
Unaware of anything but each other
Unconcerned about my concerns
Looking out the window at them
