A little perspective on invasive species
Here where the ice covered everything
In a sheet thousands of feet thick
What existed ten thousand years ago
Here everything around us came from away
Expanding its range without regard
Displacing whatever was here before it
And our species is the prime example
The indigenous people decimated and dispossessed
The old growth forests clearcut and the prairie plowed under
The wetlands drained and waterways engineered
The countryside colonized with European species
This is the world we find ourselves in
Trying to preserve and protect what is left of nature
Seeking opportunities for restoration
But making invasives the enemy lacks awareness
The overlap with anti-immigration language gives me pause
Between the racists who clamor to build that wall
And those who wish to exterminate alien flora and fauna
Paired in common by a desire to keep out recent arrivals
Don't get me wrong thinking I don't grieve the loss
The chestnut and elm and ash trees and so much else
The introduced species taking over and all the wildlife habitat gone
But stomping spotted lanternflies is a fool's errand
While these unwelcome species proliferate
Spread by global commerce to and from everywhere
The global warming crisis only intensifies
Driven by business as usual continuing without restraint
The sixth mass extinction upheaval
The unintended consequence of human activity
Already underway if you care to know
Begs us to make a fundamental social change
