Tuesday, July 20, 2021

red alert

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 

Skylands July 20, 2021

Monday, July 19, 2021

Ramapo Valley Reservation July 19, 2021

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Echo Lake July 18, 2021