The Canary

We can only get where we want to go by first admitting where we are. Sometimes that isn’t a pretty picture but the truth of knowing is what can give us some of the information and power needed to change. Where do you want to go? Where are you now? How can knowing where you are empower you to get where you want to go?

Weak from toxins,

The canary

Is struggling to sing.

The miners ignore

Or dismiss her.

Too busy with their lives

And thinking they are different.

“Poor thing.

So vulnerable.

Not me;

I’m different.”

The toxins are invisible

So the miners

Who are insensitive

Don’t consciously feel or notice.

But unbeknownst to them,

The toxins are killing them slowly.

The canary sings of the mockery

Of the cell tower pseudo-trees

That are noxious.

In contrast to real trees

Which give life.

She sings of other dangers,

But is ignored.

The world, so toxic,

The canaries are threatened.

Perhaps to become an endangered species.

With the unconscious others to follow,

Perhaps in short order.

(Though another story may be told

Of canaries surviving

Due to their awareness.

Finding a way to fly away,

Finding a way

To protect themselves.)

Another says:

“These aren’t toxins for all of us.

We’re evolving.”

If so

A myriad suffering and dying

Is the path to that future,

So that a few

Who “evolve”

Might survive.

Survive to find the loneliness

Of a world that has killed most life

With the refuse and poisons created

While the "evolution" occurred.

Such a future looks bleak

Though perhaps

As time passes,

More will come to know

Of the dangers.

The butterflies flapping their wings

In concert with the canaries singing

May create an effect

Around the world.

A butterfly effect

May trigger changes that can alert enough

To have them wake up

And make the conscious alterations

Needed to save us all.

Bibi Caspari © 3/6/19