The acid smog in the air
rains into rivers
and joins factory sludge
and field chemicals
on their way to the sea.

The obscene slime
spreads from ocean
to ocean and from coast
to oily coast.

The air cannot wash its
hair because trees and shrubs
have not been replanted
most places by most people.

Wood and coal and oil burn on,
rivers are damned, mostly
unfresh water remains
turning a blue planet brown.

We humans might see
our world changing,
but we see screens
and windshields more
than we see our skies.

[Thanks to Elizabeth Kolbert for her
two recent New Yorker articles
reporting on the research for this.]

Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, January 4, 2014