The Murder of Earth

Earth shudders in the rain, the downfall of her spirit

It feeds her ravenous maw, flows over her cracked, mountainous lips,

Her skin is sand – the plants, her hair, are brittle, delicate as the single tear

The final drop of a mountain spring – all its companions wept away

The dry eyes of lakes burn under the glare of the sun; the protective veil she threw

Over the world is damaged – holes have been wrought

Through which the fierce light reaches

Burning her to desert – our world, distraught,

Heaves beneath us, tremendous cataclysms

The likes of which entombed Atlantis and Pompeii

She's been stripped, raped, humiliated – left to die

Her disrespectful children entomb her in

The waste and refuse of their lives, like rubbing salt in a wound

Deep as the love she once bestowed upon her, raw as her emotions

She lingered through the ages, endured our endless siege

We gutted her – ripped out her heart for gold and jewels –

For the coal we used to choke her in the smog

That strikes a vicious cancer within her

A fast-spreading illness, causing damage that becomes

More irreparable by the hour; so easily avoided

We, who should know better, are letting her die

We see the wound and ignore it – push aside the problem

"Let other's worry; one won't make any difference!"

Oh, please, let others not think this way!