If they were fully aware
          the invested misery,
          the scathing abuse
          and the bludgeoning of perfection
Would they renounce their gilded ease,
          their snappy playthings,
          hypnotic tomorrows?
If we could show
          the privileged marauders
          who have never seen their own footprint
          the toll and mortgage of
          their artificial lifestyle,
          all the stock they’ve bought in climate change,
Would they shriek and flee
          or gaze unapologetically
          like an audience that watches
          a live bear
          slowly lowered into the boiling water?

Jenny McBride’s writing has appeared in The California Quarterly, Tidal Echoes, Green Social Thought, Star 82 Review and other journals.  She makes her home in the rainforest of southeast Alaska.