(For Earth Day 2024)

The sky above our head is

A ragged umbrella in need of a needle

The rain which leaks through the rupture
Is a cocktail of contending toxins   

The cloud up there is a wet blanket
Dripping like a dirge upon a feverish earth

The birds fled several season ago
Without leaving a forwarding address

Prodigal saws have felled the joy
Of flourishing forests

There is a twilight stanza
In the song of the wind

Several seasons ago we sowed the Wind
The Whirlwind is ripe for our heedless reaping

The Earth we used to know
Is once-upon-a-time

** Niyi Osundare, one of Africa’s foremost poets and academics, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, University of New Orleans.