I Am Afraid of What the Earth is Saying
June 29, 2019.
Today, on my walk,
The crows were strange
I found them in different groups
Of three as I wandered my way,
Here on power lines,
There in trees or on the grass.
And as I passed, they did not move
To another spot or fly away,
Instead they loudly yelled at me
And I spoke back my magic word
And called them “cousin,”
And they cawed back,
And all along my path at different places
We conversed,
Me expressing mainly with my sound,
“Why so disturbed, it's only me your cousin.”
It was only as I reached back home
That it sank in
I should have talked less and listened more
For it dawned on me that they were saying,
“It is time, for the Change.”
In the news, Europe is baking
With unheard of temperatures
And their skies are filled with Saharan dust,
Methane is bubbling from sea beds,
And from melting permafrost.
And all the science models saying
Of what might be in seventy years
Have been tossed
It's happening now.
Oh, crows speak to me again
And say the worst will not be true,
Give me some good news and
Lie, if you must,
For in your messages, I will trust,
You are the one remaining source I will believe:
Tell me that I will have books to read,
And will not end my last days
Homeless and scavenging for food and shelter
And crying for a civilization drowned and burned away.
©2019 Carl Scott Harker
It seems to me, that at some point, there is no turning back to conditions on this Earth that we have always known. I am suggesting that June 29, 2019 marks the ending of one epoch and the beginning of a new one. I have no explanation for why the crows acted so strangely on that day, but as I reached the front garden of my home at the end of my walk, my mind just filled with these words: “It is time, for the Change.”
You can find my most recent book of poetry on Amazon here: Poems by My Cat.