2020 A Year to Forget
Earth put a roaring halt
to our empty rabid existence
ceasing marathon plastic productions
disintegrating worldwide stock markets
shuttering ubiquitous greed
Earth put a roaring halt
to our multimillion-dollar-games
sunk crude oil markets to asunder
stopped our titillating trophy hunts
our eating bloody meat in hoards
our cruel trampling of the land
put an end to our soiling of the skies
our tarnishing the homes where water-beasts are born
In one thunderous clap the Planet hurled
an instant standstill to our haywire
to our decapitation of mountain tops
our butchering of tree-communities
to our murdering sprees of elephant
and whale, tiger infants
and elders, mothers and girls
Throughout passing days of sirens
our existence is halted
a new plague set into motion
our mass die-off
launched.
Copyright © 2024 by Nancy Mercado. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 23, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
“I’ve always contemplated the human condition. Why it is that our species can be so ruinous to other life forms, to each other, and to the only home we have—Earth. I wonder why many of us are so enthralled with fame, power, and money, and not with the many wonders of our beautiful planet or the universe. I often become angry at our destructive nature, and so I document it in my work. Twenty-twenty was a perfect year to do just that.”
—Nancy Mercado
Nancy Mercado
Poet, editor, and activist Nancy Mercado received her BA from Rutgers University, an MA from New York University, and a PhD in English literature from SUNY Binghamton. She is the author of the poetry collection It Concerns the Madness (Long Shot Productions, 2000) and the editor of the first anthology dedicated to Nuyorican women writers, originally published online in two volumes by Hunter College. She has also written and directed seven plays.