I wake every day to this

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?

�

�