Sun Gazing

We sipped our coffee

And counted our breaths

Staring over the view

We had just learned to appreciate,

And now we counted the days

Until it would be no more,

Ruined by the hand of those

In charge of overseeing

Our “well-being”

Those we chose to listen

To our voices,

But instead they listen

To a tune all their own,

A song written long ago

To the sound of change jingling

In a king’s pocket.

Our throats were dry

Dehydration and ill use set in

As we feared the coming days

Where trees would fall,

Nutrients would be stripped

From an earth that fed us

For generations-

We cried tears

For the stream that would be

Polluted and eventually

Filled to the brim with trash

From a people who treated it

As a dumping ground-

We stared over a land of green

Terrified of the day

It would become a field of metal,

A field of metal flowers

Progression in a modern age

As old ways are swept away

And we spin faster towards

A coming doom

Welcomed by those in charge.

Katrina Thornley is a nature poet. novelist, and freelance journalist that resides in Rhode Island. She has two poetry collections currently published, a novel, as well as a short story anthology. Her poetry collections "Arcadians: Lullaby in Nature" and "Arcadians: Wooden Mystics" were inspired by a local park and life in her small rural town. You can find them on Amazon now!

Also, be sure to give her a follow on Instagram (@seekatwrite). Don't forget Facebook!

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