Mango: a poem
Man, go on and tell me how today’s wildfires
are burning hotter and higher, killing even the
great sequoias, who used to be too tall to burn,
but are now susceptible to fire, and are dying.
Man, go on and tell me that the wildfires are burning
year after year, too close together, so even the lodgepole pine,
who needs fire to germinate, is not regenerating because
the fires burn before the young trees can produce seeds.
Man, go on and tell me about ecosystems changing
as the temperature rises degree by degree, but trees can’t
pull up their roots and travel to a more appropriate climate,
can’t drop their seeds hundreds of miles away in a cooler place,
so we have to do it for them, planting trees farther north
than they previously could ever grow before.
Man, go on and tell me how planting more trees isn’t always
the answer, because trees take so long to adapt and develop
and get established before they sequester a significant amount
of carbon in their bodies. Tell me how we should be saving the
trees and forests we already have.
Man, go on and tell me how Aboriginal Australians are fighting
fire with fire to reduce the accidental burning of wildlife and
ecosystems. Tell me how they are living off of fire, making it
their friend.
Man, go on and tell me how the yields of the fruits of tropical trees
in the wild forests are suffering because of the higher temperature,
so the wildlife there is starving, elephants mere skeletons with
skin over ribcages, seeking for fruit to pluck, wanting that juice
so ripe it runs out your mouth and down your chin.
Man, go on and tell me there’s something we can do.
Tell me it’s not too late.
Man, go on.
(information from National Geographic, May 2022)
Tansy Julie Soaring Eagle Paschold
