I wasn’t present on Day 2 when God made you
to do His bidding. I know of the 40-day flood,
hailstones over Egypt, whirlwinds and tempests,
so I know Someone’s furious. Arctic blizzards
and tornados wail at us. You spit out typhoons,
hurricanes, blanket the Horn of Africa in drought,
and elsewhere, pour down 25 inches in 24 hours.
When you shower sunshine, we congest you
with greenhouse gases. You nurture with rain.
We belch fossil fuel. Your winds cool.We burn
down forests.You wrap us in quilts of clouds.
We infect atmosphere. Our cooling system,
the ice caps, is conking out, yet we continue
to contaminate our dying oceans. We’re selfish,
comfortable with convenience, good at denying
reality. Folks blame you for rained-out baseball
games, mudslides, famine. You gift us diversity,
we create haves/ have nots. Both melt Poles.
—
Joan Gerstein, a retired educator and therapist has been writing poems since elementary school. She teaches creative writing to incarcerated veterans and her first book of poetry, Theories of Relativity, was published by Garden oak press in 2021.
