Refined February 16, 2018

​I Cannot Begin

Let us Pray:

For the almost extinct cedars of Lebanon​
for the dying Dead Sea
for the dead teeth in the Mississippi’s mouth
for the bleached-to-death Indonesian, Australian, Floridian, coral reefs
​
for the fifteen tons of dementia-inducing mercury spewed daily into the sky 
for the crudity of Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon                                                        for oil-spill sperm releases in every known sea

for factory farms where the dignity of cattle, pigs, and chickens is slaughtered                for the cold-blooded pumps that thrust ever deeper into virgin aquifers

for the neutron bomb, the cluster bomb, and the bunker buster
for the unimaginable anguish in Rwanda, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, Iraq 

for Katusha rockets, helicopter gunships, and creative shrapnel
for the current reincarnations of Genghis, Pol Pot, Mussolini, and Milosevic

for mutually-assured destruction
for collateral despair
       
for land mines, strip mines, and uranium mines--same result    
for mountaintop removal and fracking implants
  
for automatic weapons in the hands of the walking diseased
for radioactive bullets and widespread silencers
 
for recruiting children to kill                                                                                                      for converting kids into kidnappers, prostitutes, and poachers
for the drive-by ejaculations of gangbangers
 
for ignoring the virus of poverty                                                                                                for the overweight salaries of those CEO’s who cannot stomach giving back 
 
for unaffordable medicines
for congressmen who fondle healthcare like one of their aides       
                                                                                                                                                      for the ongoing choking of the soul of indigenous peoples
for the vanished American buffalo and African elephant herds
 
for the at-risk jaguar, oscelot, cheetah, snow leopard, puma                                                for the fading blue whale, black rhino, red panda, gray wolf   
                                               
for the exponentially advancing deserts                                                                                   for every river which expires before it tastes its mouth
​
for the designer holes worn through the ozone blanket
for the weeping and gnashing polar ice                                                                                    for fractured glaciers on every continent
​
for the common origin of pesticides, pornography, and plutonium
for creative assassinations

for fake presidents injecting epilepsy into our Constitution   
  
for catatonic topsoil
for the global success of hunger                                                                                              for shoving fish genes up the rectums of tomatoes
​
for holy men who preach roadside bombings and beheadings
for holy men who molest our sacred women and children
for holy men whose beliefs don’t even believe them
 
for failing to revere God in the natural world
for failing to recognize God in the face of the other
for failing to to discover Ourselves to be the practical stand-in for God

I cannot begin to express my sorrow