Anthropogenic activity:

Wondering why the sky cries such torrential tears

whirlpooled in sheets of ice and wind;

waiting as it winds up our minds 

like toys about to walk until we fall off the countertop. 

 

Anthropogenic activity:

Bearing witness to the birds

screaming in chorus with arthritic crickets.

A sad choir singing its final funeral song, 

for the world dying above them. 

 

Anthropogenic activity:

When the heat of our combined mistakes 

pushes the planet to its limits. 

Either burning us to the ground 

or drowning us until were crowned 

with the marks of the Dead, 

the Killers, 

and the Regretful. 

 

Anthropogenic activity:

When we wonder why this is happening. 

Ignoring the voices of the trained, 

the scientists that explain societies fault, 

we insist that the world is made of liers 

instead of looking through our own eyes 

to see that people are dying. 

Dying because of the weather, 

because the earth is dying, 

because of the people who are killing it in the first place: 

Those who took advantage of her 

and never made an effort to keep her clean.

Like a child’s bedroom after a birthday party, 

an office breakroom, or a forest after a wildfire, 

we fall down to the ground and wither under the smoke in our lungs. 

 

Anthropogenic activity:

When, still, we have the audacity to ask 

“Why is this happening?”

 

Anthropogenic activity:

When we choose to ignore warnings even as our due date gets closer. 

A procrastinated research paper that will result in a failing grade. 

 

Anthropogenic activity:

A universe in the future where humans no longer exist, 

and the earth tries to repair herself, 

crawls closer every day, begging for help. 

And yet we question 

who invited this beggar into our home, 

and refuse to heal her wounds.  

 

Anthropogenic activity:

Humans having had decades 

to start fixing our mistakes 

from times when we didn’t know their impact. 

And yet we sat and watched time fly by. 

 

Anthropogenic:

One adjective, five syllables, 

circa 1883, with lingual ancestors in Greek and middle English;

Roots in ignorance and negligence, 

it remains the biggest disaster of the human race.