Skylands November 15, 2019

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ice on the pond

The ice on the pond forces the ducks to fly away

To go in search of open water in a warmer place

Leaving behind the seed eaters and stragglers

The ones we see walking past cold bare trees. 

We are bundled up under several layers

Feeling lips and teeth chilled as we breathe

Eyes sting and noses drip in the frigid air

Choosing to get outside for a few short hours.

Our talk is of times past contending with winter

Being bone cold after working outside all day

The way the wind would bite and tears froze

Shivering waiting for the bus or train to come.

My sister doesn't mind the freezing weather 

Saying all you need is the right clothes

Cheerful about going out in the snow and ice

Never minding her cold hands and dry skin.

Not us.  We will escape next week because we can

Going south to where the warm days invite us out

Going where the birds that migrate gather to wait

Not returning here until the spring buds leaf out.

DeKorte November 11, 2019

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nothing less

It's going to be a life and death struggle

To compel the fossil fuel extraction industry 

To leave all that money in the ground 

Expropriating the billionaire owners.

The good of the planet and the people of the world

Our rallying cry against the self serving capitalists

Requires nothing less than removing their class 

Taking the power from them to change everything. 

Right now they are in complete control

The courts the police the politicians all do their bidding 

The media tell us anything else is unthinkable 

Even as the climate crisis emergency hits home. 

But when the idea of the socialist alternative takes hold

Spreading through every place and every way

Mobilizing all manner of actions to seize the day

There will be no stopping the determined population.

Today their government eliminates all restraints

Against the rapacious destruction of the environment

In a desperate rush to cash in at the last minute

Before popular anger slams the door shut. 

Tomorrow necessity will be the mother of invention

Transforming how we live and work together

Based on a whole earth health awareness

With science in the service of global well being.