today I read about a kite
a floating candy stripe
harvesting wind power
about a shuttle
seeding cirrus
a carbon capture
… if today
the god is the machine, swooping in to halt the peat
bomb rising up from agitation of decay
the deus ex in wait
why are we waiting?
the whales are beaching, the coral bleached
the cardinals and jays are flashing warnings
dive-bombing in the falling
action of the play
a chorus
of furies
in antithesis of mad plantations
that clear the forests for our chewing
gum, our spitting cooking oil … if today
hubris is the way
the problem, human … if we can send up
shuttles mimicking volcanos
to counter slash and burn
why am I digging
on hands and knees
in leaving spring
to plant a tree
in ten thousand cities?
Kathleen Hellen is the author of three full-length poetry collections, including Meet Me at the Bottom, The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, and Umberto’s Night, which won the poetry prize from Washington Writers’ Publishing House, and two chapbooks.
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