ECUADOR POEMS: OUR PLANETARY PROBLEM

OUR PLANETARY PROBLEM

Our cabana overlooks an Andean

Valley lightly flecked with clouds

That keep these jungle forests green.

Before me hangs a feeder used by crowds

Of hummingbirds of every stripe and hue:

Tawny, black and white, scarlet or teal.

But this is an aerial warfare view

Far from a peaceful bucolic scene.

These winged warriors swoop and dart

At any color but their own,

Briefly sip with kindred cohorts

Then shoot the alien flyers down.

Who’s unlike me must be my foe:

A rule that every earthling knows.