Chain Reaction; Inside/Out—an environmental poem

The following poem was submitted to Wired868 by Serina A Hearn:

Mahogany hardwood floors,

so polished you could see your face,

white silk-damask adorned

hand-carved settees and winged-

backed chairs stage the conference

on the fate of soil sustainability,

while Chopin entertains

the closed windows, with a view over

the obscured Port-of-Spain skyline.

Tons of Sahara dust

have descended on South America.

Photo: Sahara Dust blots the air.

Cargo laden plumes,

navigate the Trade winds

for thousands of miles from, Bodele, Chad,

to blanket mineral rich

potassium, calcium, and iron,

on the neotropics: the Amazon basin,

along with T&T’s rainforests,

bringing nutrients to hungry,

ancient, carbon-mitigating, leafy sentinels

cooling skies for millennia.

Humanity chokes, but the dust will settle…

compared to the daily mass extinction

of thousands of insects and wild life

which survive on Natures’ breastmilk,

our discomfort is insignificant

to the man-made holocaust,

of billions burning,

crimes visible in outer-of-space:

Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, the Congo…

undeterred, illegal, global deforestation,

including here, where we act blind

to starving, and making homeless:

Ocelots, Capuchins, Toucans, Golden tree frogs,

Manatee, Pawi, Bats, Butterflies, and Moths.

Photo: A monarch butterfly.

The wasteland of Inside:

superficial, manicured hubris, is reflected Outside;

Botanic, animal, and fish extinctions

create a tipping point that brings humanity

to the threshold of extinction,

for in the end

how can we live without them?

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About Serina A Hearn

Serina A Hearn is a Bishop Anstey alum who attended St Martin’s School of Art, London, UK. Two collections of her poems were published by Mid America Press Inc and Woodley Memorial Press. She is currently working on a third book.

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One comment

  1. Once again I am captivated… mesmerized… And held in awe at your ability to see so much… By the vast expanse of your view… You take it all in Bit by Bit… Swirl it around in your mind and bring it forth in Heart Felt Words… Words mean something… Long after you are gone your written words will live on… They will tell of your world seen… Cared for… Earth, Plants, Sea, Insect, Reptilian, Mammals, and Humans all alike… All Inter Connecting… Supporting one another often sight unseen… The care you have shown for all of this that matters to you… so much it is your Life… As I spent 30+ years of my life traversing our worlds Hotspots looking at Fauna & Foliage as nothing more than Cover & Concealment I now see this world for the first time in the Colors, Hues, and Life that it was always meant to be seen… The miles and miles that I had set my foot down… One foot in front of the other without a second thought about what lay under it… I walk slower now and I see with much more thanks to you. For this Midwestern United States Country Boy born to a sea of golden wheat. Know that it is you who has reached across vast Ocean… The Mouth of the Mississippi River and the expanse of marsh, rock, stone, and dry earth to capture not only my eye for all things taken for granted… But my Heart. You are henceforth in my eye and in my heart not just the product of one of the best that Bishops has put forth but you are truly the personification of what makes the people of Trinidad and Tobago so very special… A “Mother Natur” of your Islands and the last soul to take it for granted… and if I so may… The Environmental Princess of Trinidad & Tobago…

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