Mother Nature

By Angela Scire

A mother should never suffer at the hands of her child, so what are we doing to our mother?

She’s the epitome of elegance and beauty,
her greens and yellows and oranges
on display for us to see
and admire;
for it is us she shares with glee.

It’s strange
how we are given so many gifts,
like the oxygen we breathe,
and the plains and mountains we yearn to explore,
and the sun-warmed beaches we feel relaxed on,
and even the food and water we consume,
and yet we treat her as if she isn’t the mother that gives us opportunity
to live in bright, verdant beauty.

She is a part of us
many fail to realize.
Our very Earth was erected with care and precision,
everywhere you look there is a fragment of her
hidden yet so obviously evident that
her mark will never fade.

She is only really honored by few,
ignored and discredited by the rest.
Her forests are empty, 
the stumps the only evidence it was ever there.
Her oceans are damaged almost beyond repair,
oil infecting and contaminating its inhabitants to the brink of death.
Her air meant for us is polluted
by the very people it was meant to give life.

When she is somber and exasperated,
her tears flow with determination 
to give us what we need to survive.
Even when she is at her lowest
due to us,
she still gives with the same purpose 
she devoted her very being to.

The next time we hear her wails
through the suffocating and polluted winds,
her frustrated cries through the thunder,
and feel the coldness of her weeping,
there should be no ignorance.

Her pain is the embodiment of neglect
that children should never give their dutiful mother.

Feed the dying flower.
Pick up the discarded piece of plastic you just walked past.
Clean the ocean, it’s filthy.
Use recycled bags.
Treat your mother with respect.

Process

The poetry workshop on mother nature was an inspiration for this piece. I always wanted to expand or grow my poetry skills, so this piece definitely felt good to write. I incorporated a lot of concepts regarding mother nature, pollution, oil spills, deforestation, etc. that was mentioned in the workshop into the poem. I really wanted it to sound like a self-reflection. In a way, I wanted it to showcase the reader’s mistakes and help them—along with myself—in changing the harmful habits we don’t realize are killing the planet and our home.