It Is Lonely

by Elaine Reardon, United States

Earth tried to be the bright blue light
in the Milky Way galaxy,
but it had become so
difficult to respire,
difficult to keep her
fish alive in oceans,
wearying to preserve forests,
impossible to clean 
rivers and lakes.



She watched chestnut, maple, pine,
bear, haddock, whales,
all struggle and deplete.
Pipelines filled with gas and oil 
tattooed across her fields, her rivers.
Smoke and smog enclosed
cities all over her girth.
More cars, more lights 
blinked in skyscrapers, more profit
made from the fruits of her body.

The land that is her body,
water that is her blood,
air that is her breath,
changed.
It is lonely, she thought, 
dying while no one noticed.