Nancy Mercado

for Barack

Change the pacific ocean trash gyre

a swirling mass of pestilence vomiting plastic demons

devouring the innocents of the sea

Change the melting mountains of ice

the thinning rug beneath the polar bear’s feet

change their early eclipse from this world

Change the wars in the middle east

wiping out the children in the streets

dressed in grey rags playing with dirt

and sticks and with pebbles

Change the insatiable hunger of the rich

for diamonds and dollar bills and oil to eat and to drink

their self-indulging time bomb for us all

Change the extinction of the bats and the bees

the little hard working creatures

who never asked us for anything in life

change their downfall from this planet

Change our lust for ignorance and for more and more things

our hypnotic affair with guns and ammunitions

with violence on the air and violence in our dreams

Change the foolhardiness with which we treat the earth

the yanking out of forests by the acres

without knowing the lives there

with no care for the souls there

Change our narcissism over minuscule acts of

how far we have come

our bizarre decrees of dominion over earth and sky and sea

Change the minds and hearts of men

their rotted country sides and blackened water ways

their tainted winds and distempered cities

Let them be filled with color and youth and vibrant again

Let them be lucid and living and loving again