There is darkness to water
of intent and revenge for what we’ve done,
as the earth becomes hotter and hotter.

What will we tell our sons and daughters?
In our destruction, what have we won?
There is darkness to the water.

It thirsts for revenge and in its anger
it flattens cities, ending what we begun,
causing the earth to become hotter and hotter.

Who was the leaders? Why did they falter?
Our forests, ruined land, both made barren.
There is darkness in the water.

What will we tell children after?
We ruined the earth and all we were given,
and made the air sulfur, becoming hotter.

Now we cannot go back. The winds stir
nothing and we cannot alter
the intense darkness in the water
which floods as things get hotter.
—
Martin Willitts Jr forthcoming poetry books include “Waiting for the Day to Open Its Wings” (UNBOUND Content), “City Of Tents” (Crisis Chronicles Press), “Swimming in the Ladle of Stars” (Kattywompus Press), “A Is For Aorta” (Kind of Hurricane Press, e-book), “Martin Willitts Jr, Greatest Hits” (Kattywompus Press), “The Way Things Used To Be” (Writing Knights Press), “Irises, the Lightning Conductor For Van Gogh’s Illness” (Aldrich Press).