Inheritance

You were born in a pandemic

wildfires raging

hurricanes through the gulf

the hottest summer

the ice sheets melting

You will tell your grandchildren

that once there were white bears

that lived in the north

when there were icebergs

before the big melt

and there were major coastal cities

now underwater

once we had great reefs

but they were bleached

once we drank water

without microplastics

and we ate fish from the ocean

once there were rain forests

but we cut down the trees

for cattle so we could eat beef

and methane gas was produced

You can say you didn’t start the fire

unless your parents launched pytrotechics

to announce your gender

which started the wildfires in the U.S.

which destroyed 7000 acres

Drought then fire in Aus 

left Koala’s helpless

we said we didn’t start the fire

as we anticipated nuclear disaster

and then faced terrorism

as we learned about global warming

which we blamed on plastic water bottles

and this pandemic where people protested

wearing a mask to protect others

still racial dissension, inequality and suppression

we’ll leave you to solve the problems

with a few go fund me pages

and a social media campaign or two

maybe you can plant a tree

if you can find some land

that hasn’t been stripped mined

oil sands

maybe you’ll adopt diversity

so its a reality

not a catch phrase

corporate program to collaborate

maybe you’ll be international

without travelling the world

leaving dirty carbon footprints

and you can clean up the mess

that we didn’t create but added to

or not

maybe by your children’s children’s time

they will take a space ship

and leave this garbage planet

that we killed

(c)2021 by Catherine Elder