Tea With My Mother

Happy Earth Day!!!

I sat down with Mother Nature for a cup of tea

I could tell she was livid by the way she banged her spoon
against the china cup

“I’ve had it up to here!” she bellowed

and indicated the top of Mt. Everest

I asked her what was wrong;

It was a long tea

“I work my fingers to the bone, and no one appreciates it! I give them clean air, clean water, a nice place to live, good food, and they just ruin it!”

I thought it best not to interrupt her, so I kept quiet

She continued, “They throw their trash everywhere! The rivers, the streams, the land-they don’t care. They dirty my beautiful air with toxic smoke! They leave their used chemicals just anywhere! Do you know I found fertilizer in the Chesapeake Bay?!! It was a disgrace!”

I tried to empathize, “It’s tough being a mom. You get taken for granted.”

Mother Nature slammed her cup down on the saucer, spraying the tablecloth with cold tea

“Damn right!” she agreed.

“They think I have nothing better to do than to clean up after them and fix their broken Earth. I need a break! I can’t even remember the last time I got to sit down and watch my shows.”

“Well,” I suggested, “there’s always Earth Day.”

This was a mistake

“Ha! What a joke! Sure, I get ‘Happy Earth Day!’ cards, but does anyone really do anything meaningful? No, they don’t! Granted, a few of them go out and pick up some trash from the roads or vow to live a ‘greener’ life, but what happens the next day? Right back to belching fumes from their big, old cars and tossing out their plastic bottles because they’re too busy to recycle. “

I mumbled a lame, “I’m sorry,” and asked if she wanted more tea.

“Please,” she replied, “only make it green tea. I don’t need the caffeine.”

I poured her tea, and she began to muse

“I should just disappear for a while and leave them to their own devices. It wouldn’t take long for them to realize all that I do around here! Within a week, they’d be swimming in their own filth and crying for their Mother.”

“I’d miss you,” I told her. “Please don’t go. There are a few of us who understand all that you do, and maybe someday the rest will too. Besides, whom else would I have tea with?”

Mother Nature looked thoughtful. She finished her tea and set the cup down

“I guess I’ll stick around for a while longer,” she concluded. “But, so help me goddess, if things get much worse, I’m outta here!”
 

Spring, Battle Creek Cypress Swamp

image source

 Tiny spring peepers

Chirp love songs from the Cypress

Bull frog bass back beat

Mayapple leaves spread

Catching cool raindrops falling

Umbrellas for toads

Ethereal mist

Blankets buds, warbler takes wing

Traveler on Earth

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, A Word With Laurie, Ethereal

and Old Pond A Frog Leaps In
and 

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 19 – February 19th – Theme: Seasons Type: Kigo

Hallowed Ground

photo by Allison Tardio

The woman is a double agent

Although she pretends to be a teacher

she really works

for the forest

She is protector of this hallowed ground

(but don't tell or she'll have to set her snakes on you)

She leads the children

and the grown ones on wooded hikes

tells them about the Cypress

the birds

the crayfish

but mostly she watches

Sometimes the woman catches the eye

of a kindred soul

a wild child

She gives a secret wink

The rest believe she's there

for them

(fools!)

She's there for the spirits of the forest

the ghostlike deer 

who appear and disappear

without a sound

the sinewy black snake

with  forked tongue sniffing the breeze

the orange legged spider

showy and quick

decorating its web with marks of Zorro

This is their home

and humans, the intruders

The woman sees to it that the guests behave

show the proper respect

and if they don't

someone may go home with nasty case of

poison ivy

or perhaps an accidental fall

into the creek

(careless children are prone to accidents)

and you never know

where a snake may slither.

photo by Allison Tardio

submitted for Poetry Jam, Hallows Eve

Change of Perspective

tree in our yard where lightning struck

Kicked and bruised Earth is

bullied into submission

Mother Nature screams