The Golden Rule

We must apply the golden rule to nature
because there are those who would cut us down;
who would drill us with holes;
who would fill us with poisons
given half the chance
but they will do it to our friend
nature first
and if we sit and watch
his silent screaming face
and do not help
then later people will look
at the scene of our suffering;
at the landscape of our scarred body
and not see the white moons filled with terror;
not tell our tears from the rain
and our desperate voice will sound like the wind
that bangs at doors and howls at windows
until, giving up hope, it dies away.