What was it like
for the dinosaurs
those years before their end?
Did some of them feel it?
Did some of them wonder,
what is happening?
Is this the end?
What was it like
for the Romans
those years before their
civilization crumbled?
Did some of them know?
Did some of them ask,
what is happening?
Is this the end?
What was it like for
the peoples of the Americas
when the white men
invaded their lands?
Did some of them see?
Did some of them say,
ah, now it is happening,
this is the end?
I wonder what is happening?
Is this the end?
They say the average temperature
is a few degrees warmer.
Is it?
It’s always too hot for me
here in the southern summer.
And the winters here are so mild.
Are the polar ice caps melting?
They could tell me
the moon was melting—
how would I know?
I watch the news,
the pictures in the magazines—
are they real?
Hurricane on the Gulf Coast,
tsunami in Asia,
earthquake in Iraq—
are they real or
more Hollywood movies?
If I’m not there, how can I know?
I can know because
I hear my heart, my soul
and they know, they say,
it isn’t right….
what some, just a few
of the humans are doing
have been doing.
It isn’t right
they have no right
to push their ways on everyone else
on all humans, all beings
on the whole planet.
It isn’t right.
It isn’t their planet.
The Earth is her own being.
She has rights.
She deserves respect.
She deserves to be honored
and cherished.
And I feel that she doesn’t like
what the few have done
continue to do
and though nothing
seems to have changed
where I am
I can feel her shifting
I can feel her tension
feel the pain she is suffering
from the abuse
feel her moving.
I see these things she is doing—
hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes
as her reactions to the terrible things
man has done to her.
She’s blinking her eyes
she’s trying to shake off those who are torturing her,
she’s weeping great floods
of hurt and angry tears.
And I wonder, what is happening?
Is this the end?
Yes, it must be,
it has to be the end of these ways
of taking and not giving back
of blind thoughtless consumption.
She will not stand anymore.
She cannot.
We must stop, see what we’ve done,
change our ways.
This must be the end of the rape
of the Earth in the name of progress,
in the name of civilization.
We must learn that we are not
the best, the highest,
but only some of many
who must coexist with all others
in mutual respect,
with awareness
of the planet we live on
and of all the others
who live here with us
and all those who will come for generations after.
Is this the end of the Earth?
The Earth endures.
Is this the end of the humans?
Maybe, or maybe some of them.
Is this the end of this way of life?
It should be.
The end of an old way,
and the beginning of a new way—
a respectful, awakening way.
