Gardens are radiant with color,
heady with the perfume of lilacs.
Buttercups sip sunshine in the demitase cups.
Roses in full bloom pull rank.
Oak trees wear age with dignity.
The regal swan keeps its distance from the ducks.
Asphalt claims eminent domain,
replacing wetlands with shopping malls and parking lots.
Trees succumb to the voracious appetite of chainsaws.
Earth – libretto for the music of the universe –
wages a life-and-death struggle for survival.
When the song of the whale is heard no more,
the wolf banished from its temple in the forest,
the eagle only a picture on a dollar bill,
beast and bird will remain a faded memory.Mary Engelberg