Poem for the Environment

Having moved to a waterfront community, this poem arises out of my concern for the environment and the damage we are doing to it.

Warning Sign

walking the beach
the dog’s paws glancing off
awkward rocks
coated in old effluent

the lake is rank today
like a toilet in a long-abandoned house
whose offal was never flushed away

the seagull, I understand
felled with a death’s necklace
of plastic links

the goose
desiccated corpse
still crowned with lively plumage

I do not want to know
its reason for weakness
for being too ill
to join its comrades
on the journey south

a desolate death
on a dying shore
serves as a warning

I take the dog to the grass
to get clean

Bonita Summers © 2007