Howling Wilderness

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6/19/2025 for This or That, Vol 34 Poetry Contest sponsored by Edward Ibeh

In the wind, hear a plaintive, mournful wail.
It is more than a wolf caught in a trap.
It's more than fishing gear catching a whale
and rainforests being wiped from the map.

It is a voice that cannot speak in words. 
Across the ages, you discern the moan 
of vanishing prairies, buffalo herds, 
that's carried by plowed up topsoil, windblown.  

Earth's untamed ecosystems we hold dear 
are crying softly, asking for our help, 
grimly warning that they will disappear.   
Like a badly injured dog's dying yelp, 

hear the wilderness's last gasping breath, 
"Save me from the clench of languishing death".

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Kim Rodrigues

Date: 6/20/2025 5:01:00 AM

I think of the Dust Bowl…hard way to learn a lesson. What is mankind mucking up now?

David Crandall
Date: 6/20/2025 5:41:00 PM

Haha, you nailed it. See my response below to Gershon about what I kind of gleaned from a Ken Burns doc. It seems like maybe we didn't learn from the dust bowl, just found another non-renewal resource as a Band-Aid.

Gershon Wolf

Date: 6/19/2025 7:51:00 PM

Sonds like you'd like to preserve the 'vanishing prairie.' Well, good luck, Charlie, I mean, David. LOL. ~ Suburban Sprawl Developer

David Crandall
Date: 6/20/2025 5:38:00 PM

initially, in this poem I was thinking about the whole earth, which is worth saving (probably), but I sort of veered off when I rhymed herds with birds, remembering a Ken Burns doc on the dust bowl. I began to wonder, what caused and what solved it. In fact, a good part of the solution is water from the Olallala Aquafer - which is being depleted, when it's gone, well...