Certainly, there are many families with loved ones serving in the Middle East. Somehow, they withstand heat, tedium, sandstorms, gunfire, bombs and insurgents. Survival is their common denominator. But most Americans have no direct connection to service members; instead, we pledge our support by pasting yellow ribbon stickers on our minivan bumpers, visible mainly to the car behind us in the Starbucks drive-thru lane.
Likewise, Gulf Coasters have had their livelihoods destroyed, just as suddenly and irrevocably as a soldier maimed by an IED. We ache for them, and for the oil drenched wildlife we see on TV. But it's easy for us to bury our distress when the only immediate consequence is a minor increase in the prices of fish and gas.
I've no doubt that ripples from both events will reach the rest of us in years to come. What forms they'll take, I can't say, but I bet we'll contend with repercussions that finally, cause us to look back on our inaction now and think "If only we had . . . "
Wingspan
Brown pelicans
shrouded in sheeted oil
squat helplessly, their feathers
gummed together,
straight jacketed by pasted wings.
Each sea dive yields
only a blackened beak-pouch
of slicked fish
quieted by oil clogged gills.
They blink through muck
trusting that somehow,
they'll spread their wings again.
I murmur my regret
as I click my seat belt
and gun the engine, bound
on some urgent errand
for lawn chairs
and summer shoes.
----Linda Collins
What will become of us....
ReplyDelete