There’s a Climate Crime in
progress, the players
rolls reversed standing
upon wrong marks like
Protectors as Perpetrators
Villains as Extras or
Stagehands stranded among
fallen props, the murdered
Trees and Broken Nests
sullen faced and guarded
by uninformed bad actors and
the State of chaos, of lights
going out, curtains falling and
the Audience arriving late or
never showing up at all to
witness or read a program
making little sense of what’s
beyond the fence, the Forest
killed off in the first act
the finale fully revealed
from the start and the
backers, the producers and
directors staging other shows,
failures all, off stage
in other theaters of
operation in a nation of
contagion in need of real
first responders of all ages
all races and relations acting
out a new script instead of
The End.
–Otis State Forest, 2017
Don Ogden has been active in environmental and social justice issues for most of his life. His news reports, commentaries and poetry have appeared in a wide variety of publications and on national and local radio. He has produced and performed in ecologically themed street theater in the Northeast for years as well. He is the producer and co-host of The Enviro Show on Valley Free Radio, WXOJ-lp. His book, Bad Atmosphere – A Collection of Poetry & Prose on the Climate Crisis was published by Levellers Press in Amherst.