Anthropocene - Rebecca del Rio

[Larry Robinson]

Anthropocene 
 
Even the word feels claustrophobic
Like endless lines and crowds
Of one color only. A species
 
Alone without context.
How lonely we have made
Ourselves, how poor.
 
It is not survival,
But greed that guides, drives
Us, leaves us lonely
 
On a denuded plain,
Without the container, the completion
Of other life to embrace us.
 
What will we do when only people
Populate our planet, our poems?
Who will we be
 
When we’ve forgotten our companions,
The oak, the fox, the prairie grass and
The hen hidden within.
 
Who will we be when
All around us 
Are mirrors and madness?
 
	- Rebecca del Rio