Water

What is the vitality and necessity

Of clean water?

Ask the man who is ill, who is lifting

His lips to the cup.

Ask the forest.

Ah, Environmental Justice in poetry.  What befalls one of us, befalls us all.  If there not clean water on this earth, then we all become ill:  the fishes in the rivers, the herons on the banks, the children on dusty roads, and the planet itself.

But I speak for myself.

Let me ask the forest, which from my upper story hotel room in Denver is several miles away.  The trees don’t really start to populate the rising terrain until the upper reaches of the of the brown shrouded mountain.  The snow is scant on the peaks, which are graced with low clouds.  I don’t know why, but is just feels “dry” out there.  Perhaps this is just my Florida self speaking who is accustomed to the over 93% humidity reported last week.  Even at home with all that water, there isn’t enough. Many springs are ill, and several have already died.

The pine forests here and at home answer with crashing limb and trunk, or with a crackle of fire.  If I could but take the cup of poisoned water from the lips of this wondrous world, and refill it with loving purity I would.

What shall you put in your cup today to offer the world?