Back in Michigan, the lake effect

snow climbs to the top of the

trees

like a mountain goat

climbs higher and higher

with every seismic jolt

to avoid calamities.

Here in Arizona, the dammed

up creeks, now dry river beds,

form half full/half empty lakes

with water receding like soapy

water sliding down with

the gurgle it always makes.

The desert plants die

and great lakes freeze,

so why, oh, why

can’t I

revel in the glories

of nature, like Words-

worth, Mary Oliver and

the Shelleys?

But wasn’t it that other

Mary, the prophetic Shelley,

who warned us of

technologiceze,

the worship of that we

can do without thought

of what it might do

causing great unease

and then disease

and ultimately death, oh

no, no, please?