Careless Consequences
The seas are alive,
Swimming with life.
Dolphins leaping with grace and precision.
A seahorse clinging to the neon green seaweed,
Manta rays roaming freely and undeterred.
Great whales breaching … Read more
Nature
Drought-Break
For months, nothing but rain in California.
Rain in California, as unexpected
as a savant’s first symphony, as kindness
from a forgotten foe.
The oaks lean in, slump tons
of … Read more
UN Climate Panel’s Last Words
My hands in dishwater, sinking
in suds, earbuds in—so I don’t disturb
the house with news that claws
its way into my brain and scratches
its talons across my heart, … Read more
Another End of the World Type Scenario
Red tide washing on a red state.
Red tide every year getting bigger.
Jump in, say the couple from Kansas.
Jump in, say the kids on spring break.
Not so … Read more
Summer Creek
stumbling down dry-leaf trails on summer creek
— I dare not touch the water.
fish scales dry on sandy dunes,
on jagged banks like druid runes,
the smell is harsh, … Read more
Hurricane Ian: For Those Falling or Broken
The top of the moringa tree planted
when we first moved here twists
horizontal as if scribbled against
darkening sky by … Read more
Relentless Ian
He makes his way
over miles of ocean
gathering strength
looking like a threat.
Bold landfall in Cuba
slices off the power,
leaves families homeless
his eye aimed at the … Read more
City Garden
The community garden where I grow tomatoes,
green peppers, zucchini, and gladiolas.
My little piece of heaven – twelve by twelve
what more could I ask … Read more
Under a Tree
High school sweethearts celebrating
56 years of marriage on a trip to DC.
to find their fate hiding under a tree
Traveling 803 miles from Janesville, WI
to explore the … Read more
O, Cool Water
the quencher of perpetual thirsts,
the extinguisher of sporadic wildfires,
the melter of wicked witches,
why besmirch your goodness
with outbursts that flood unwary towns
in a flash, turn docile … Read more
Man in Flames
The man has been
burned out of his
clothes, out of
the wheat field he
was trying to save
when the wind turned
the flames that outflanked
and overran him.… Read more
Songs of the Archipelagos
For Small Island, Big Song
They come from places you could easily forget,
somewhere between the Pacific and Indian
Oceans: islands where statues gaze at the horizon,
like when the … Read more
Anthropocene Suite
For Amitav Ghosh
1
Peel the pale, brown flesh
Hold the cracked shell to your ear:
Screams of the Banda
2
Escaping Earth’s hold,
Unmanned rockets race to claim
Living … Read more
In The Breeze
a swirl of ravenous winds,
pummeling down at high velocities
a trinket lost in the damage
a house, a home
more than a million and a half to count
tin … Read more