A Plea for my Planet and Its People

A glacier melted just like that

In Nepal and Chinese Tibet.

In an instant

Thousands of lives are now gone-

Nepal, still one of the poorest countries

With one of the gentlest cultures

I've experienced,

The birthplace of the Buddha.

And Tibet, the birthplace of the lamas-

Painfully, shockingly, needlessly killed,

As the rest of us continue to live

Consuming,

Polluting,

Paying for foreign wars with our taxes-

The aircraft carriers, jet planes

Guzzling and burning petroleum fuel,

Manufacturing bombs and drones and guns,

Maintaining nuclear arsenals,

Driving emission-emitting vehicles,

Or electric cars powered by

Coal-burning electric plants.

The planet gets hotter,

Hurricanes arrive more furiously,

Forest fires rampage-

Even the upper class Europeans and

Americans are dropping dead in the heat-

Especially our elders,

Some of whom have brought us here

By their degradation of our planet

Via decisions made in corporate board rooms

And in high-up political circles,

Where lies are peddled

About our climate

And the path we are on.

Now even the engineers

Are relying on the Artificial Intelligence

That is draining our electric grids

To try to save us from ourselves,

With carbon-capture tech,

Efficient forms of clean renewable energy,

Geoengineering if it comes to that,

And maybe one day hot-suits,

Like what volcanologists wear,

To keep us cool when the temperature

Exceeds our human threshold of survival,

Not too far away in all honesty-

As we'll all be walking from air-conditioned building to building,

Not knowing what fresh air smells like

Anymore,

Looking like astronauts on Mars-

If we're so lucky.

But right now my heart has been strangled

By the scenes of innocent life

Being extinguished-

Not like the reaching of Nirvana

That Siddhartha Gautam spoke of

As the culmination of many lives

Well-lived,

But by the ignition of hellfire

By demons walking amongst us,

Dressed in suits.

As we, the meek,

Who “shall inherit this Earth,”

And those with faith,

Can do nothing but

Accept this as our Kali Yuga

And pray