By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2023

First published in Founder’s Favourites Issue 23 (July, 2023)

Starving Food Chains of Life

By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2023

While we may not have noticed
the last time around,
when cicadas awakened,
body-blasting choral sound;
countless winged insect species
have decreased each day,
as forest meadows are mowed
and sparkling waters decay.

Had we listened more closely
for buzzing of bees,
or flapping of butterflies
soaring past us in spring breeze;
or searched for green fireflies
in shadows of glades,
or called out to ladybugs
to fly home to forest shade;

Then with great disappointment
we would have been faced
with the frank realization
of dwindling numbers erased,
from hubris and ignorance,
ambition and greed,
destroying their breeding grounds
by omission or by deed,
decimating the food source
on which earth’s species do feed,
as vital as the plankton
dwindling, in oceans of need.