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A Difference I Shall Make
I used to watch the trees tango with the wind,
branches swaying and leaves danced aloft;
I used to listen to the wistful hummingbirds,
whose operas caressed my delicate ears,
sizes too small to appreciate their magnificence;
I used to dip my feet in the pond,
following the water as it traversed my feet
like butter searching for the edges of burnt toast;
I used to marvel at the zinnias,
petals varnished scarlet by the sunlight,
blushing at their beauty.
Now I view leaves resting on a bed of dirt,
crushed and crumpled and bearing holes;
The pond in which I once submerged my toes is empty,
now swelling with dust and roots
and silence and solitude;
The zinnias have disappeared,
too ashamed to show their faces once more,
refusing to let me see their blushing;
And the potent melodies of the hummingbirds
have grown silent,
for their composers were forced out of their homes.
I am falling into An Uninhabitable Earth,
slipping into a Sixth Extinction,
heading for a Great Derangement,
becoming a fixture in The Drowned World;
I must defend the trees,
whose voices have been reduced to gasps of air
as they become irrelevant stumps;
I must fight for my brothers and sisters in nature,
who have been ignored
like an overflowing pile of garbage;
I know that if No One is Too Small to Make A Difference,
a difference I shall make.
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