<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq m8h3af8h gh25dzvf" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Carried On the Wind</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Some of us suspect that the wind carries messages,</div><div dir="auto" class="">though their meanings are not always easy to decipher.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Like <a tabindex="-1" style="color: rgb(56, 88, 152); cursor: pointer;" class=""></a>the other animals, we once understood immediately,</div><div dir="auto" class="">but then we became proud and went mostly deaf, and now</div><div dir="auto" class="">require poets, mystics, and physicists to explain.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">We still aren't sure if that airborne mail comes from gods </div><div dir="auto" class="">or science -- maybe there's really no difference in the end.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Just so, the writer is out sniffing the breeze, then hurries in</div><div dir="auto" class="">to write it all down before he forgets what it showed him.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">There are noxious fumes rising from the machines,</div><div dir="auto" class="">while lifeforms collapse in slow motion around them.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Great clouds of toxic smoke regularly encircle the globe</div><div dir="auto" class="">so that humans can revel in the dubious joys of palm oil.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">The wind makes no judgment, it is just the messenger.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">When the great glaciers melt to reveal bare rock, </div><div dir="auto" class="">you still won't hear the wind complain. </div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Come floods or famines, rising temps or longer droughts,</div><div dir="auto" class="">climate warnings or denials, the wind will carry on the same.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Crowds of deformed fish are afloat on the ocean's surface, </div><div dir="auto" class="">their bellies exposed to an indifferent sky, the stench </div><div dir="auto" class="">so revolting that not even hungry predator birds</div><div dir="auto" class="">will dare swoop down for a meal.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" class="">Those aquatic dead bob aimlessly on the tides, sharing </div><div dir="auto" class="">the fouled water with miles of oil slicks and floating </div><div dir="auto" class="">plastic refuse -- the ominous signs of advanced civilization.</div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">The wind will share all this and more, but how much more</div><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">can we bear to hear? It seems we've not yet heard enough,</div><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">but for those who do have the ears to hear, the message </div><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">should be loud and clear: unless we turn this ship </div><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">around, the wind will continue but we may not.</div><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre;"> </span><font color="#050505" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">- Bob O'Hearn</span></font></div><div style="color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;" class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class="kmwttqpk n3t5jt4f l7ghb35v kjdc1dyq gh25dzvf jikcssrz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;"></div></div></body></html>