Our Planetary Inheritence

When the sky's swathed in blue

At the soft break of dawn,

And the cool morning mist

Is just about gone,

I am already awake

In deep, quiet thought.

So I unzip my sleeping bag

And roll out of my cot.

The breeze tells me secrets

I have not heard before,

And my feet tread so softly

On the green forest floor.

The raccoons rustle nearby,

Awake rather late,

And they waddle through the foliage

With a tense, hurried gait.

A woodpecker's percussion

Is a strange, lonesome sound

Because the accompaniment

Of songbirds is no longer around.

The bobcat, we haven't seen

Since more houses were built.

The foxes on the roadside

Are all we see, to our guilt.

A homeless gopher tortoise

Sets out to dig a new hole,

For his old one was buried

On land a bulldozer stole.

We will not have much longer

These pockets of Florida wild;

I say goodbye to it while I can

With my inheriting child.

******************************************

November 25th, 2023

Titusville, FL. Photo by Kimberlee Long