Hear Their Voices

Written on Awabakal Land

Feet, upon a land that loses life by the minute

Plagued by strange figures, they say,

Diminish it, for flesh they slay,

A chain, everbroken.

Roots, nothing but a mear diseased token.

This is a war that you know is being waged.

And together, we can intervene it.

This is the Amazon, a place turning dry, as animals become alone

38 species are gone, forever, lost from this dying world, they’ve been tethered.

This could be the Amazon, barren and dead, no traces of its past, solemn and red.

A desert, with no traces of life, only the fossilized dead.

A place so broken, it will disturb your head.

Knowing it once was a place, “Amazing” the elders said.

Hear their voices, their cries and pleas? “Please, stop…”

Change the path we are all walking down.

Silence this voice inside, silence the desire for more, 

Rid the extra golden crown, we can decide.

—Hear—their—voices—