the thousand councils

There are councils of animals,

Trees, lichens, all living things 

Gathering in the woods, on the plains,

In the canyons, beside the rivers,

All across all the oceans 

And they are wondering what to do

With us, those creatures who ravage them

Who think the planet is theirs alone

Not the sloth’s, not the salamander’s,

The amanita’s, the ant’s.

Our greed confounds them—

The wisest among them (ah old trees)

Are speechless, they cannot see

How a living thing could want

To destroy the thing it is living on.

The councils gather in silence,

Waves rolling above them, moon over desert,

And think great togetherness thoughts.

But none of them have weapons

To battle the thing that is killing them. 

The tallest oldest trees stand quietly

And all those gathered understand—

They must exist with extra vividness

To show them—us—their worthiness,

Their wisdom, their beauty, their life.

There—do you hear the yellow shout of the plain?