Part cento, part sensory poem, this collaborative poem was crafted during a workshop facilitated by San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto as part of the San Mateo County Youth Ecopoetry Project (2021-2022).
Ideas to Postpone the End of the World
Quoted lines from “Generation Climate: How the crisis made young people the adults in the room,” (CNN, November 5, 2021)
“The Earth is speaking, she tells us that we have no more time.”
It sounds like cars going by, like a cat chasing her feathered toy,
a dog barking, a murder of crows cawing, a buzzing.
“It's time to look at the bigger picture.”
See the overcast sky and the still unlighted tree,
watch the bird feeder that lies a few feet from the cat perch.
“We cannot eat coal, we cannot drink oil.”
But we can feel the curved edge of the table,
a pen’s pointed nib, how light the empty mug.
“We are not drowning, we are fighting.”
We can smell the fresh laundry
but the apple doesn’t smell like an apple at all
“We have ideas to postpone the end of the world.”
We’ve swallowed the bitter fruit.
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