Greta Thunberg on a stage in Helsinki after speaking to a crowd of 10,000 people at a March 15, 2019 Fridays for Future rally. |
You will lie down in shallow water
Shelter under roofing tin
Move on, keep on moving
On small screens, the most fortunate
Will remember coral reefs
Forests not on fire, elephants, tigers
You will have children, yes, because
You will sing to them
When they are hungry, feverish
When the storm rages
Some few of you, the saintly few
Will not hate us, not curse us
Will forgive
Pepper Trail is a poet and naturalist based in Ashland, Oregon. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Atlanta Review, Spillway, Kyoto Journal, Cascadia Review, and other publications, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. His collection Cascade-Siskiyou was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award in Poetry.