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The great indifference

Satellite image showing smoke from Siberian forest fires reaching the North Pole August 3, 2021

Satellite image showing smoke from Siberian forest fires reaching the North Pole (August 3, 2021). Image credit: Felton Davis, Flickr.

The West is burning
acre after acre gone to ash.
It’s so hot hundreds die:
does anyone in power care?

The East is waterlogged
and new storms come roaring
months earlier than ever:
does anyone in power care?

Media spew lies and lead
people to refuse vaccines
and die, children on ventilators:
does anyone in power care?

Everyday some angry man
goes out and shoots everyone
in sight, no place safe now:
does anyone in power care?

We die from what could be
prevented if the powerful gave
the tiniest damn, but they only
care for those who give money
so they can keep that power
evermore.

Marge Piercy is the author of many books of poetry, most recently On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light (Knopf, 2020).
2021, Volume 73, Number 6 (November 2021)
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