Three Poems for Earth Day

It's Earth Day and Ring Around the Basin is reposting some poems to celebrate. Just click on the titles if you want to see the original postings. One includes an article explaining the poem’s inspiration.

photo by Jeff Cauhape

Last summer, our desert landscape exploded with a beautiful super-bloom. While jeeping around to see it, we met an elderly woman walking alone and stopped for a chat.

Leona

Standing alone beside the desert road

She watches us approach, apprehensive

We stop and soon the stories begin

She walks a few times a week, leaves

George at the car while she explores

Among the wildflowers and sage

In thirty years she's seen the changes

Coyotes, lions, deer, even antelope

Moving to this side of the valley

And then there are the campers

Who cast their litter upon the ground

Empty their tanks to spoil the earth

Chase wild horses on bikes and 4 by 4's

Her face twists with frustration

What can I do but pick up their trash?

We start to go and she waves us on

Say Hi to George when you see him

And turns back to her beloved land.

---

Every year, the trash builds up even higher around our National Parks and resorts. Fourth of July is often targeted by the media to report this horror. Beyond the fireworks debris, visitors seem to think it's perfectly okay to leave an amazing array to garbage on the beaches around Lake Tahoe because they know that volunteers will converge the following days to pick up after them.

Put It in Your Pocket and Take It Home

If you ever think of visiting our pretty little town

Your rudeness and your driving skills really bring us down.

You're never worth the cost to us if you're going to leave a mess

We don't really need the business of an ill-mannered guest.

Your dog poo and your TP, your tampons and your shields

The beer cans in the fire pits, the diapers in the fields

Your plastic toys and paper, your COVID face masks too

If you're going to burden our resources, we don't want you.

We'd like to share our wilderness, the mountains and the streams

We understand only too well how this beauty fills your dreams

But please carry a trash bag when you finally decide to come

So you can put it in your pocket and take it ALL back home.

---

Then again, accidents will happen and, try as we will, some litter just gets away from us.

stock photo

Tissue

It escaped a pocket, bounced

across the pavement, zig-zagged

with the errant breeze.

I chased after it

Bent to snatch it back

When it skittered away.

It paused as if to plot its path

Infused with its own life

Perhaps a dream of freedom

From the slog of daily cares.

Then it burst forth again

Only to be stopped by a curb.

Aha! I've got you now!

I raced to take advantage

When the wind flung it

In another direction.

I picked up speed

Despite my aching joints

Not wanting it to spoil

This pristine parking lot.

No litter anywhere but this

Rebellious bit

Of wadded fiber glancing

Off cracks and curbs.

The gap widened between us.

I finally gave up.

It was much too quick.

And as it disappeared around the corner

Did I hear it giggle and proclaim

I'm free! I'm free!

I sighed with guilt at having lost control

Then slipped my hand into my pocket

Where I found my wadded tissue

Still in place. I looked around

The deserted lot and laughed.

---

Happy Earth Day everybody. Let's enjoy our beautiful planet and do the best we can to keep it that way.

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to explore the poems, essays, and articles in the Ring Around the Basin Archive. Thank you for joining me here with your subscription and comments.