the world we abuse
roasting us like marshmallows
in a fire we lit
climate change
Accelerant
our apocalypse
once in ultra slow motion
now on fast forward
Ravish
it is raining!
no, not water
from clouds
but dead leaves
from july trees
scorched by
a brutal heat
too sunburnt
to evergreen
falling, fallen
brittle brown
leafy teardrops
raining down
the dry warm
forlorn face of
mother earth
Killing nature
the wilderness died
of a broken heart —
from bad decisions and
evil battles of grown men
blackout poetry created from Rafe Martin, Birdwing, 2005
End of the race
drivers of “progress”
steering us toward a cliff
at capital velocity
It’s a dry heat streak
full moon monsoon clouds
glow pale light through windy trees
parched leaves shadow dance
Fight for our lives
like wild animals, I am happy hiding
the artificial frightens my being —
but it is time to fight for the earth
scrambled blackout poetry created from Rafe Martin, Birdwing, 2005
CBT
but the science bears out
my catastrophic thinking
Hustled
Spring doesn’t know
how to spring anymore
because it thinks it’s summer
Autumn can’t fall in line
with seasonal time anymore
because the heat’s still rising
Winter won’t wait
to leaf the trees anymore
because spring too early spirals
Weather reports 2023
PHOENIX, ARIZONA
* * *
JULY 19
july the nineteenth
overnight low temp
of ninety-seven degrees
* * *
OCTOBER 19
october nineteenth
one hundred and three degrees
climate change is hoax
* * *
NOVEMBER 6
day before winter
ninety-three degrees
summer-autumn in phoenix
* * *
NOVEMBER 8
dear gods of weather —
will it ever rain again
in bone-dry phoenix?
* * *
NOVEMBER 14
now a week into winter
high: eighty-eight F degrees
that’s not fahrenheit
* * *
NOVEMBER 18
i begged & pleaded
for rain but now bemoaning
winter mosquitoes
* * *
DECEMBER 6
really, december:
high of eighty-two degrees?
oh no you didn’t!
* * *
DECEMBER 21
on midwinter day
seventy-seven degrees
a sunburned solstice
* * *
Flux capacity
Nature and wildlife
are gradually vanishing
like in the photograph
from Back to the Future —
our future is vanishing too
but we have no hundred
and thirty horsepower
gas-fired time machine
to go back and fix it.
Monsoon love
for the harsh heat wave
wet apologetic gift
from clouds to tree roots