“In nature nothing exists alone.”

~Rachael Carson

 

We heard the rumbling and spark of static

roiling in the clouds beyond our reach.

 

             No one thinks the storm will last

             until the second lightning flash.

 

That summer we heard thunderous claps,

flinched abashed and mildly amused,

 

until the leaves revealed their paler undersides

and shivered in the strange cyclonic wind.

 

Blowing into fall, the tremendous storm broke,

ripped apart our Hope, from Truth and Future.

 

We wept, railed and marched toward the devastation

that only the unsheltered knew would always come

 

            for our poorest—peregrine canaries left

            to swallow the executive-ordered DDT.

 

Will we heed their hoodless eyes again

or cower in despair at every chilling tweet?