Striding across the land

her long shadow scoops up souls

like sifting gold from the sand.

 

Between her cold fingers

she gathers them home

their mortal breath shivering into silence

as they lift off, their tired flesh let go.

 

It is the time of reckoning;

of becoming aware of and experiencing 

first-hand, the consequence

of endemic disparity, arrogance and folly.

 

The time for reaping spoiled harvests,

of plagues, ice-melt, deluge and fire.

Of lush forests reduced to wasteland,

coral reefs bleached by acid to death;

contamination of the biosphere’s

elements and chemistry

with rampant, exponential extinction

of micro and macro species, world-wide.

Where agri-business and mechanisation

already sped-up, dehumanised

are overtaken by artificial-unintelligence

and genetic manipulation:

the final denaturing of Nature.