we stand watching
the waters, fully
awake and undreamed—
the rivers exploding
uncontained, the sky
vivid in its indifference
to the currents
carrying the debris,
both past and future
burying all the voices
keening in the dark–
who breathes this wild
rain, exhales these tempests,
scatters the spirits
that might comfort
our distress? we bandage
the gaps, we open
our umbrellas as the waters
rise, as the multitudes
wait, unsheltered, drowning
in the accumulation
of what has been denied
For the earthweal challenge, environmental justice. Bandaids and umbrellas are not enough.
K. 
And yet, with all the marching, I think we are all demanding all that has been for so long denied, and this time I dont think we will stop till we are heard.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No these voices are ot going silent soon.
LikeLike
So sadly true, in many ways.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Ken.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think all tht has been denied is rising up on the torrents of change so that we can finally see what has been submerged for eons. Now we see more clearly and can begin to find ways to heal and clear the pain, the waste, the injustices. It’s a process that will take time and the outcomes are uncertain but it ain’t over yet
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s not over at all. And you are right, much that we have buried is being thrown up on our shores.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“the sky
vivid in its indifference
to the currents”
All so true–the sun rises and sets, the oceans roll on, and nature finds ways to go on flowing, as people rise up or as they are put down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Merril. It’s hard not to see the state of the world as apocalyptic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. 😢
LikeLiked by 1 person
As Peter Gabriel once sang, here comes the flood: Inspired, invoked and legislated by the arid of mind and heart. A hard rain now falls: our poetry has to offer shelter greater than umbrellas and find ways to build bridges and ebb tides. – Brendan
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Brendan. There must be more offered by all of us.
LikeLike
Your imagery strikes so many chords, the word choice and the visuals created.
There are calls for decreasing rather then increasing production and changing what we produce and how. But for the moment they are just wake up calls. Governments are listening to the car manufacturers, the air companies, the leisure industry. It could have been an opportunity to close failing industries and encourage new, cleaner industries with a future. Seems as though we’re going for the quick fix, the band aid and umbrella approach.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m afraid there will be little change in consumer habits. Depressing.
LikeLike
The first thing thousands did when the strict confinement rules were eased was to go shopping. Just imagine, they hadn’t bought anything for more than two months!!! The privations suffered by the mindless.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here too. The newspaper had a photo of a line around the block for a sneaker store. Appalling.
LikeLike
It’s for throwaway sneakers that kids are being exploited in sweat shops, that the forests are being chopped down, the seas polluted and animals driven to extinction. But at least we’re getting rid of lots of statues…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes that’s a good thing.
LikeLike
When they first started on the statue demolishing I thought, oh good, about time, but it’s difficult to see where it’s going to end. I mean, Christopher Columbus? How can you judge a sailor, adventurer, discoverer born in the fifteenth century by the morals of the twenty first century? If you scratch beneath the surface of almost every venerable figure you’ll find they hated cats or they abandoned/beat/murdered their wives, were awful to their grandma, but we seem to be very choosy about what we castigate the people of the past for, and it’s often for things that were completely run of the mill ordinary for their epoch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was just thinking…why statues at all? What humans need to be glorified? Plant trees.
LikeLike
Much better idea.
Oh for the good old days when the men who ruled us were left in effigy so we could never forget them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
drowning
in the accumulation
of what has been denied
This is such a powerful and insightful poem – it needs to be read.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Lindi.
LikeLike
A powerful poem with fine collage. It may well be that the environment must wipe us out in the end. But I hope our rebellions and cleanups may give us and it a little grace before then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too. Thanks Susan.
LikeLike