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Wildfires

Across distant shores, consuming wildfires dance, devouring forests and futures, mirroring humanity's insatiable appetite.

June 15, 2022

Where Greece ends, Turkey begins
wildfires engulf both
devouring forests, birds, beasts
and human settlements.

Wild winds whip flaming trees
embracing arms in death cries
as blazing sun mocks human ants
struggling to douse relentless flames

In California too, fire’s insatiable appetite
gobbles cafes and cars
enflamed skies witnessing an Apocalypse
of wealth and power

Throttled by mankind’s greed
Nature has jumped oceans, continents
hurling destruction
at two ends of the globe
respecting neither natural
nor political boundaries

Citizens point to politicians, arsonists –
who are surely to blame –
but can we write off our own role
as consumers demanding more and more and more?

📖
PART OF A COLLECTION

Meditations on the Sea and 1 other poem

View Full Collection →

Meher Pestonji

Pallavi Padma-Uday is a writer, journalist and business historian based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 2021, she was recipient of a writing grant from Centre for Creative Practices in Ireland, supported by the Irish Arts Council, for her second poetry collection. Her first poetry collection ?Orisons in the dark? is forthcoming in 2022. She is an alumnus of London School of Economics and is currently researching the evolution of social capital in Indian business in the 20th century at Queen?s University Centre for Economic History in Belfast. She tweets at @ecnhistorienne.

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