When young I travelled far abroad
around a globe not yet explored.
The Milky Way still pearled the sky
while bird-song piped the dawn and soared.
Now, years on, I seek to sanctify the tiny jewel of land I occupy.
In the years I’m graced here to stay this gift I seek to beautify.
I plant a blossom-tossed display,
tend my garden’s gems in May.
Young trees laced about the house for shade wave off heat and stormy spray.
My home is but a borrowed glint of jade. But will our human dollars soon degrade or save the brighter gem, our Planet,
a jewel we so heartlessly let fade?
Should we all hope forego, forget?
Or can we avert the dire threat
to all green life and loveliness,
grow bigger hearts with will and sweat?
Can we restore to shining liveliness Persephone, the banished goddess in hell’s jail, compelled to sacrifice her light through carelessnesss?
Will we myopic mortals only pay the price
when fires and floods from Hell spark our remorse? Will we then save Earth from dark demise,
restore the lovely Goddess to our paradise?
Linda Ankrah-Dove©.
From Borrowed Glint of Jade. Blackstone Press, 2019, p.67.
(Available from the author)