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| Image source: Linda Lerner |
we were warned to keep away from strangers
to be suspicious of anyone not like us
people of other races and of different religions from ours
atheists and all free spirits especially artists
we were warned about sleeping in other people’s homes
eating food we weren’t familiar with
getting overexcited and too emotional about things
of danger lurking in sleep away camp and open road clubs
discouraged from swimming, bike riding getting too much sun
we were warned about touching ourselves and
of men who only wanted one thing
about drugs and sex and how “the more you get the more you want”
we were warned about many things
but nobody warned us about the trees
we played ring around the rosy under
that kept the sun from burning us
trees whose leaves dazzled us with color every autumn
infested with fungus or mold and dying of root rot
environmentalists sent out alarms with predictions
we dismissed along with climate change as nonsense
nobody warned us that the trees would become killers
and uproot lifting up slabs of concrete from under us
break thru iron gates into homes flattening cars
killing anyone in their way
nobody warned us…
Linda Lerner's Takes Guts and Years Sometimes (New & Selected Poems) is published by New York Quarterly Press.