10 haikus for the planet we failed

Maria Isabel Garcia
Our dying planet, remembered in Japanese poetry

Ice shrinking across
Water now overreaching 
Planet sinks within

Chickens dominate
Birds reduced to table fare
Wings trapped in buckets

Heavy air we puffed 
Muffled living blue planet
Breath of life ceases

Fake bubbles at sea
Polymers inside critters
Plastic victory

Blank brown slates of earth
Lost the forest for the trees
Weep in place of rain 

Third rock from the sun
Ablaze from human-lit fire
Seek human-made fan

Planet had a past
Sapiens feasted on futures
Planet knows no now

Sole stage for life burns
Blind, we count dollars and cents
Fundamentals gone

Coal wrote all over 
Eclipsing the blue planet 
Carbon epitaph

Losing the logic
Wrapped in dark human crisis
Haiku emerges

Rappler.com

Maria Isabel Garcia is a science writer. She has written two books, “Science Solitaire” and “Twenty One Grams of Spirit and Seven Ounces of Desire.” You can reach her at sciencesolitaire@gmail.com.

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