Fanning the Flames

 

The flames

of global warming

light your horizon,

 

its storms blow

ever more forcefully

against your windows,

 

and the water 

continues to inch

towards your doorstep

 

When you said 

you’d rather die

than give up 

meat / eggs / dairy,

I thought it was 

just hyperbole

 

at first

 

I thought science

would convince you

 

at first

 

I thought you’d realize,

as study after study

revealed “Livestock’s 

Long Shadow,”

 

that it wasn’t just deadly

for the livestock

 

I thought when 

climate change 

knocked persistently 

at your door

 

like an unrelenting 

and unwelcome 

Jehovah’s Witness,

 

that you’d finally 

be able to see

the smoking gun, 

 

the smoking grill

 

But your house is on fire,

your forest is on fire,

your world is on fire

 

And still you stand 

over your barbeque,

 

lamenting the 

sadness of the flames,

 

while you strike 

your next match

14 Sep 2020

Watch it performed

"Livestock's Long Shadow" references this report

"The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."

NCBI: Environmental Health Perspectives

Drinking Stocks, Breathing Bonds

That we should be 

willing to die

in order to save 

the economy 

for our grandchildren

is a strange 

rallying cry

from a party

unwilling to 
pinch any pennies

to curb our 

rapid destruction

to the planet

we were taking

from under

our grandkids’ feet

Perhaps they can

drink stocks and

breathe bonds

when that is all 

we leave them

5 May 2020

NYMag Article

Huff Post Article

Additional Huff Post article

Monsters of the Ditch

Monsters filled 

the ditch

as I walked 

hesitantly,

mournfully,

along its edge

Original and Ultra,

Java Monster,

Mega Monster

Side by side with 

Copenhagen snuff,

Orange Julius,

diet Dr. Thunder,

and a seemingly

endless supply

of undiscernible 

plastic remnants

Rolling Rock

that rolled 

out your window

Countless Bud Lights,

now lighter,

after you took

what you wanted

and discarded the rest

Your empty pack 

of Marlboros

ensure you first

polluted the air

before turning 

your disdain 

to the soil

Dasani and 

Aquafina,

you desired 

the water 

to be purified

only inside 

your own bottle,

your own bubble,

and fuck the rest

Your trash can,

my street

My glove-covered hands

scoop your indifference,

your entitlement,

into my trash bag,

a bag you filled 

before I managed 

to reach the 

first stop sign

Even if you 

can’t be bothered

to help save 

the world,

it would be nice

if you didn’t work 

so damn hard 

trying to 

destroy it

12 Apr 2020

When Money Talks, Not Everyone Gets to Listen

“The economy is great,”

Stock Market boasted

“Booming,”

agreed War Machine

“Time for another yacht,”

One Percent gloated

“I’m not seeing shit,”

hollered Minimum Wage

“It’s fucking cold,”

cried Homelessness

“I’m hungry,”

uttered Food Stamps

“They can’t afford me,”

Medication exclaimed

“I’m dying,”

gasped Environment

“Like we said, booming,”

Big Money reiterated 

Budget Deficit,

however, missed 

the entire conversation,

unable to hear 

beneath the trillion

dollars piled upon her

1 Feb 2020

Watch the poem performed with Blak Reign

Disposable Earth

Disposable forks

Disposable spoons 

Disposable knives

Plastic straws

Styrofoam trays

Disposable lives

We throw it all

in a place called

“away”

Away to our landfills

Away to our seas 

We won’t let the Earth

get in the way of our needs 

or our wants and our thrills,

the extra seconds it takes

to refill a water bottle,

to wash a few plates

Disposable Earth 

Oblivious to our fate,

We decided to tack on

an expiration date

27 Nov 2019

I’ll Take the Cheeseburger With a Side of Deforestation

Trees falling, burning 

Photosynthesis in reverse

Turning future oxygen

into current carbon dioxide, 

warming the climate 

to feed our gluttonous

appetites for the flesh

we strip from the cattle’s bones

13 Sep 2019

Watch it performed

If you want more information

Prying the Meat From Our Cold, Dead Hands

When you said 

you’d rather die 

than eat a bean burrito,

I thought you were

being figurative 

But seven hundred

thousand annual 

heart attacks 

made me realize 

you have accepted 

the odds of the

American diet 

and are still willing 

to roll the dice 

As more and more studies

show the direct link 

between animal agriculture 

and deforestation,

water pollution, 

and climate change,

it becomes increasingly 

hard to say 

you didn’t know 

Yet still, you seem

to think death

(not just theirs, 

but our own),

is worth the taste

30 Aug 2019

Science Spoke (Again) But You Decided Not To Be Sustainable Because “Vegans Are Pushy”

The waves were

rocking about us,

the sea level rising 

and dark storms 

gathered overhead

There were millions 

of us splashing

and bobbing,

not knowing 

how much longer

we could stay afloat

Some vegan was 

frantically

turning hemp 

and broccoli 

into life rafts 

of sustainability 

and tossing them 

to all within reach

But the rafts weren’t 

wrapped in bacon

so they didn’t 

exactly entice us

Besides, the vegan 

was rude and 

obnoxious,

not asking politely,

being all judgy

about our holding 

cows underwater,

one of the few

enjoyments we 

treasured in

our watery lives 

Damn pushy vegans

drive me crazy

So I drowned

instead of touching 

his hippy raft

Ha! I showed him 

and died more politely

30 Aug 2019

Inspiration for the poem: My amazing (nonvegan) friend shared this brilliant NYT article (by a nonvegan) that notes meat is killing the planet and, at the least, if we can't join vegans, we should not mock, but support them. The response from 2 of the 5 commenters: "vegans are pushy"

Charbroiling Towards Extinction

The speed with which

the planet’s lungs 

are being intentionally 

cut and burned

makes me wonder

how many years

my sons have

before the planet

collapses under

the heavy, greedy,

oblivious shoes

of humanity

Makes me wonder 

which animals

are feeling the flames

on their fleeing backs,

whose homes were

just today destroyed,

and which species

we’ve bumped 

to the front of the line

in the endless 

procession

towards extinction 

Makes me wonder

how much longer

you’ll take your beef

charbroiled on

the flames of 

global warming 

and whether you 

will even notice 

the rising heat 

of the water 

before it 

boils us alive

25 Aug 2019

beef is definitely the main course on the global deforestation menu

Watch it performed

Earth Enters Hospice Care

The diagnosis was terminal,

the patient’s suffering 

evident, from being

battered and neglected 

through her many years

Continuously harmed

by the very ones 

for whom she had

endlessly provided

But her offerings

were never sufficient

Greedily they always

demanded more

They took everything

she could give,

using it momentarily

then discarding it

carelessly on her floor

The rot piled quicker

than she could handle,

seeping into her soil,

into her water

She lay on her death bed,

the thermometer in her mouth

noting the alarming rate

with which her temperature

continued to rise

As her sickness escalated,

calls to her family were made

Many denied she was sick at all,

Many wished they could help

but were too busy 

with their own lives

and couldn’t be bothered

to help ease her pain,

Some simply ignored 

the phone’s insistent ringing

Unwilling to admit 

they cannot live

without her,

that their children 

will suffer the consequences 

of their indifference

But the patient

won’t fully die,

at some point

the invasive parasites

that push her 

relentlessly

towards her demise

will cease to be,

and then finally,

with their weight

off her sagging shoulders,

she can begin to heal

24 Jul 2019

inspired by a conversation with my friend, Zach

Watch it performed, featuring music by Zach