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I wake every day to this

Art by Mucsi Márton

By Mucsi Márton - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link.

Cruelty seems to win votes.
The shouter is heard. The whisperer
shot to silence. Words turn
to worms and wriggle in our food.

We live in times dangerous
to butterflies, polar bears and us—
the 99% who don’t count.
I bathe in cold fear each dawn.

The news is a rabid bat.
Government is a deadly virus.
There’s no refuge from slow
murder by the state, pollution,

toxins on our plates, plastics
in our blood. Fast murder
by police. The ocean wants
to kill us for poisoning it.

We are a pox upon the earth.
Bees sing repent! Change
before we all die. Do you want
an earth where cockroaches rule?

Marge Piercy is the author of many books of poetry, most recently Made in Detroit.
2020, Volume 72, Issue 04 (September 2020)
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