Say I on the Grand Staircase, with love and respect:
“Explore, discover, observe, reflect.”Says the exploiter who aims to get rich off it:
“Explore, discover, extract, and profit.”
Once gazing at deserts in awe and wonder,
We now see D5’s chaining biomes asunder.Eight hundred sixty one thousand nine seventy four
Acres of wilderness are pristine no more.
Our President, overseer of BLM’s pristine places
Finds profit in resources he exploits and disgraces.With the stroke of a pen, he grins and gloats,
Saying, “This guarantees me many more votes!”
He said at Mar-a-Lago before missing a putt,
“Big Oil loves me and my beautiful tax cut!”He encourages mining for uranium and coal
Because a second term is his obsessive goal.
Extraction of natural gas also enhances
Donald Trump’s 2020 election chances.
The liar, the predator, the bad dealmaker
Is a hypocrite himself: a scheming news faker. His view of what makes America great
Will cause ecological disaster—is that our fate?
His personal empire grows wealthy each day
As national treasures are frittered away.
In Utah we meander where no human’s been.
Solitude facilitates our peace deep within. We need canyons, the sky, the limitless view
To re-create, replenish, rejuvenate, and renew.
Grand Staircase is ours—to sustain, not subdue.
Will Walsh