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.
The Zingara Project 