Craig Santos Perez, Pacific Island of Guam
Recycling Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones”
Earth is ruined, though I deny this to my children.
Earth is ruined, and I’ve ruined it
in a thousand carbon-intensive ways,
a thousand carbon-intensive ways
I’ll share with my children. The planet is at least
fifty percent polluted, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I deny this to my children.
For every sea there is waste thrown into the sea.
For every sacred place, a place fracked, logged,
bombed into dust. Earth is ruined and the planet
is at least half polluted, and for every green
garden, there’s a toxin that would poison you,
though I deny this to my children. I am trying
to sell them doubt. Any decent capitalist,
profiting from a climate disaster, squeals on about
good fossil fuels: This growth could be sustainable,
right? We could make this growth sustainable.
Craig Santos Perez is an indigenous Chamoru poet from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the author of four books of poetry and the co-editor of five anthologies. He teaches in the English department at the University of Hawaiʻi, Manoa.
