KOALA 2022

by Stephen House

Koalas are now considered an endangered species in NSW [New South Wales], Queensland and the ACT [Australian Capital Territory], as numbers plummet due to climate change, land clearing and disease. The Australian icon had previously been rated "vulnerable" under the federal government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, but its status has now been upgraded. —ABC [Australia] News, February 11, 2022. Koalas have lost the equivalent of 10,000 cricket grounds of habitat in the last decade: In the decade since east coast koalas were first listed as vulnerable, the [Australian] federal government has approved the loss of more than 25,000 hectares of habitat, new analysis shows. Approvals were granted for 63 mostly mining projects in Queensland, NSW and the ACT, the Australian Conservation Foundation says. They allowed for the collective loss of habitat equivalent to 526,000 average-sized blocks of residential land, or about 10,400 Sydney Cricket Grounds. —SBS News, February 9, 2022.  See also “Morrison government spends $50 million saving koalas while taking away their homes” at The Conversation. 

imagine

your disappearing home

habitat never more

confused distressed

misplaced

 

reflect

on your unavailable food

territory search in vain

hungry anxious

distraught  

 

ponder

on your paths wiped away

ancient bush tracks missing

lost trapped

confined

 

grieve

your extended annihilated family

absent once were there

diseased slaughtered

vanished

 

watch

increasing ongoing destruction

shrink your nature daily

machinery clearing

building

 

Koala

on your sacred land

we must assist your plight

action demonstrate

save

 

you

Koala 2022

 

you Koala

you

 

Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright and actor. He’s received international literature residencies from The Australia Council and Asialink. His chapbook real and unreal was published by ICOE Press. His next book is out soon. His poetry is published often, and he performs his acclaimed monologues widely.

LINGUICIDE

by Akua Lezli Hope

 

No elder bids are there to sing

Regent honeyeaters’ male song

So young ones copy other things

their bird culture nearly gone

 

Regent honeyeaters’ male song

tells females if they are strong and fit

Their bird culture is nearly gone —

we play old recordings to fix it

 

Tells females if they are strong and fit

if they sing the right song

We play old recordings to fix it

fearful they won’t last long

 

If they sing the right song

extinction will be kept at bay

We’re fearful they won’t last long

as their habitat shrinks away

 

Extinction will be kept at bay

when females hear the strong songs

As their habitat shrinks away

we strive to correct our invasive wrongs

Akua Lezli Hope is a creator and wisdom seeker who uses sound, words, fiber, glass, metal, and wire to create poems, patterns, stories, music,  sculpture, and peace.  A third generation New Yorker, her honors include the NEA, two NYFAs, SFPA, Rhysling and Pushcart Prize nominations. 

THE EYE OF EARTH

by Martin Elster

Image source: NotThatKindofGirl

The eye of Earth peers, spellbound, through a chink
in melting pond ice, trying not to blink
into the blue enveloping its gaze.
It’s never seen the sun before, whose rays
scatter through the atmosphere, a link

to outer space, where constellations wink
their secrets. Billows take a healthy drink
of water vapor, amble past, amaze
    the eye of Earth.

Its habitat now teeters on the brink.
Though trees have bared their limbs, grooves black as ink
crisscross the leaf-strewn liquefying glaze,  
whose softening increases with the days.
The gravity of this, though, cannot sink
    the eye of Earth.


Martin Elster, author of There’s a Dog in the Heavens!, is also a composer and serves as percussionist for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. His poems have appeared in such journals as Astropoetica, The Flea, The Martian Wave, The Rotary Dial, and in the anthologies Taking Turns: Sonnets from Eratosphere, The 2012 Rhysling Anthology, and New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan. Martin’s poem, “Walking With the Birds and the Bones Through Fairview Cemetery” received first prize in the Thomas Gray Anniversary Poetry Competition 2014.