Amazon

 From the bones of prehistoric fish

To the rainbow layer of toxic oil

Yours is the story of our planet.

 

The battle raging

Between the jungle bird’s melody

And the blaring chain saw

Is the quarrel in our souls.

 

Mud of rotting death

And the floating logs

Of lost, stoic giants

Are carried along the same trail

To their separate fates.

 

And what becomes of these waters,

The lives they feed,

The tales they tell,

Will be what becomes of man.

***

(Cuenca, Ecuador -- December, 2018)

This poem is part of a short collection of poems that I wrote about rivers, and it was inspired heavily by my time living near a tributary of the Amazon River in Puyo. As the river goes, so goes the soul of humanity.