Maybe, Just Maybe
What if, for example, the earth wants us to learn
what it feels like
to have its grasp of life squeezed out from under it:
its blood — the waterways —
clogged with plastic and slime,
its lungs — the forests —
clear-cut without concern,
its life force — the soil —
denatured and killed
with pesticides and mono-cropping,
its micro-systems —
animals and fish, birds and bees —
endangered or killed.
All its life-giving gifts and sustainable ways
not being cared for and destroyed.
How would the earth speak to us?
How would it show us
it can’t breathe,
that it’s dying? How can it speak
so it could be heard?
Maybe, just maybe,
it would show by example.
It would infect our lungs,
squeeze the very breath out of us.
Maybe by way of a virus
that would spread without us knowing,
that would keep people apart,
break economies, immobilize nations,
leave the dying without ceremony,
with no end in sight.
And maybe, just maybe,
we can learn to work together,
to see we are one life,
that the earth is on the brink of destruction,
that we took our greed and carelessness
too far.
And maybe we can wake up
and pool our efforts
and dissolve conflicts and boundaries
for a greater cause —
to save the planet, to save life,
to save each other.
Maybe, just maybe,
we can listen this time.
©2020 Sherrie Lovler