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| The dense, green woodlands of Germany that gave rise to the "Grimms' Fairy Tales" are turning gray and dying. Forest still covers a third of the country, but 80% of all trees are sick. Weakened by years of drought, they now face another onslaught—bark beetles. As Esme Nicholson reports, some blame commercial forestry, but others say it's climate change. —NPR, July 26, 2023 |
The trees have gone gray.
I can see the sky.
I can see the sky.
Bark Beetles take advantage
of the drought that has weakened the trees.
I remember the young professor’s wife in 1960
weeping that we are ruining the planet
when others were distracted by nuclear threats
when my father in 1950 had already said
Cardinals and other Southern birds
are moving North. They are building nests.
The trees have gone gray
weeping that we are ruining the planet
while the doomed children focus
on learning how to tie their shoes
learning to focus on what we can control
and to ignore the rest.
Author’s Note: Ruth Ellen Kocher invented the gigan form.
Martha Deed’s third poetry collection Haunted By Martha was released by FootHills Publishing, July 2023. She has published ten books (poetry, mixed media, non-fiction) and ten chapbooks along with inclusion in more than 20 poetry anthologies. Individual poems have appeared in The New Verse News, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Earth’s Daughters, First Literary Review—East, Shampoo, Gypsy, and many others.