This is not a Metaphor

This is not a Metaphor

 

Remember metaphors?
I’m a recovering English teacher.
I do.

Metaphor—A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract

This is not a metaphor.
This
Is
Real.

~~~

The familiar voice of Paul Ciano, our public radio weatherman, accompanied me home.
I’m a big public radio fan, especially while driving.
Trying to contain my news intake these days,
I was happy to hear his familiar voice
Offering weather,
Something
That used to be
So 
Politically
Benign.

He began
In his
Calm,
Assured, 
Weather-Man-ish
Way:

It has been a quiet weather day in much of our northeast New York and western Mass today.
You might notice the sky has a hazy appearance, at least in many spots.
That is a direct result of the smoke from the wildfires out west
That has made its way across the country.
And
That is why the sky has been less deep blue.

~~~

I remember hearing when I was young
That
A butterfly 
Flapped her wings
In China
And
Eventually
We will feel it
In Scranton,
Pa.

I found that hard to believe.
It didn’t seem—
Possible.

Clearly,
It is.

Clearly,
We are one.

Clearly,
This is
Not
A metaphor.

~~~

I have no words.

I look to Mary Oliver.
She tells us:

~~~

The god of dirt
Came up to me many times and said
So many wise and delectable things,
I lay
On the grass listening
To his dog voice,
Frog voice; now,
He said, and now,
And never once mentioned forever

~~~

Now, Mary says,
And now
And never once mentioned
Forever.

~~~

I walk down my familiar dirt road.
The god of dirt
Meets me here.

Oh, how I love this road.
Zac the Dog,
Zac my Dog,
Loved this road.

Together we shared that.

I ponder,
I wonder,
With each step,
I attempt
To understand,
To feel,
The unraveling
Of the things 
Unfolding
Unraveling
In our universe,
In our
Natural
World.

The fires,
The floods,
The unbearable,
Incomprehensible
Losses.

Trees,
Houses,
Animals,
Lives,
Birds
Gone.

What to do?
How to feel?
How to respond?

I see the trees around me,
Here,
These New England sturdy ones.

Autumn touches them already.
This one stops me in my tracks.
She is beautiful.

And she teaches me,
This glorious tree.

Be here,
She tells me.
See me,
She urges.
Value me.
Honor me.

Yes!
Let us value more.
Let us see more.
Let us appreciate more.
Let us care for
Ourselves
And
Each 
Other
More.

As best we can.

What else 
Is there
To do?

There is only now.
Never once, a forever.

~~~

Friends here is Greta Thunberg from December 2018, in a Ted Talk called, Save the World by Changing the Rules.  Give yourself these ten minutes to listen to her wisdom.