Looking down on jaded canopies,
Blinded eyes quickly cast their
Milky gaze across logging
That persists without permission
And wildfires that raze without restraint;
Ploughing through virgin shades of green
To create hard edges where
Assassins lurk in dampened shadows.
Escalating in their severity,
These infected hosts
Breed,
Thrive,
Survive;
Smearing their sickly saliva
Across the sweltering skins
Of their unwitting enablers.
Every swing of the axe
Perfectly attuned to the
Avarice of their appetite;
A duet of devastation
Curbed only by a hidden loop
That beats against this toxic tide.
A cue nearly missed;
As we lose sight of the forest
Amongst the trees we have felled.
Cleared land in the Amazon Jungle, Brazil (Image Credit: Riccardo Pravettoni).
This poem is inspired by recent research