Mother Earth Knows Best
Newton, MA
2022, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Humankind is like the bratty teenager that won’t listen to its mom
“Mom” is Mother Earth
and she can scarcely recognize her child
When we were born
she held us close
fed us visions of justice
sustenance of public transit
animate advocates for awareness
and she always made us eat our vegetables
Yet we’ve grown picky
consumed the junk food and left the junk
assumed the ocean would swallow up
what we could not
and left the dishes for her to clean
with the faucet running on and on
Teenage years
the world grows plainer
as the parties scrape the sky—
can you taste the danger?
throwing ragers in California as
the gossip spreads like wildfire
can’t you hear the climate change
climbing higher?
But now Mother Earth is calling
yelling to the top of the mountains
swelling with the seas
she’s in that mood when you know you did something really bad
worse than throwing your orange peels in the trash instead of the compost
worse than when you swore you’d never use metal straws because
“Mom, no one else does”
and she said
My child, if all your friends decided to burn fossil fuels, would you do it. too?
Your face turns red,
the global temperature jumping a couple more degrees,
you try to tiptoe around the topic
but somehow get caught up in excuses
“Mom, the cool kids don’t take public transportation”
“Mom, it isn’t fun to spend your weekend cleaning up litter”
“Mom, I haven’t met that special someone yet at a climate awareness meeting”
And she says
My child, I do understand
But do you understand that the cool kids like the hot topics
And they toss them away while they’re still fresh
Forgotten by tomorrow and
They wear their fast fashions but
Slow down migrating birds through a tangle of
Factory smoke?
While gas prices are soaring
At greenhouses
And my planet, our house,
Loses its green tinge to the foliage of
Manmade contraptions
As the seas grow murky from a lack of action
The sunlight stale
Curtailed by a new kind of cloud
And nothing can stay cool for long
While the world is burning up
With my embarrassment
If you just did your chores
Kept the shores a little cleaner
Maybe the water would taste a little sweeter
Look a little clearer
Like a mirror you could stare proudly into
Instead of waves and waves of trash
Reflection
Reflection
In writing this piece, I focused on irony and blending words together in a way that, when people hear or read them, they’ll pick up on the ironic undertone of comparing humanity to a bratty child and the world to its disappointed mother. My piece had both slightly humorous and serious messages. On the lighter side, I wanted to portray our constant need for approval from others, and how that gets in the way of action. The other message came through in one line, where I imagined that if Mother Earth could speak to us, she would be deeply embarrassed. We have torn our planet apart, and it’s time to make amends before we have nothing left. There’s not a lot that’s funny about climate change—mass extinction, rising temperatures, melting glaciers, and increased extreme weather conditions certainly don’t fit the bill. But any reversal of these effects would certainly be a cause for many smiles.