The furnace fired as the five o’ clock shadow Set foot on the hills’ crown Setting fire to the early winter skies Giving rise to the cold winds up high Out of caution, maybe fear But the warmth gave me safety Once the darkness starts to leak And the voices wake and speak Telling horror stories of their lives Of their deaths and mishaps Some young, some sad Some want to chase the joys of life They walk without looking Carrying wallets and purses Others hunting for purpose Finding more questions than answers The ledgers of the night walkers Are written on long receipts Their names and faces almost lost After years of blending in Soft whispers to others unheard Soft as the ground they paved Softly they brush each other’s arms So as to remember what touch felt Some even call my name Know my story and know my death Yet I don’t wish to join them In their sea of restless faces Their cold eyes as daggers Piercing my hopes and armors So I chose the lit furnace For warmth and stagnant comfort Through the ashes the somber end The possibilities unravel like string Broken bit by bit they leave Without a thread to follow or lead The sunrise as cold as ever Gives me pause of doubt and deception But the smoke from my burned aspirations Leaves me waking to the same question
Keystone XL is No More
The Keystone XL pipeline project, commissioned in 2010, is terminated completely as of June 9th, 2021. This would’ve been one of the longest pipelines in the world and TC Energy had been planning it for years. Personally I believe that fossil fuels are an obsolete resource to be used for energy when technologies for renewable energy sources are expanding, evolving and becoming cheaper. This pipeline specifically has had the attention of the public as soon as TC Energy proposed the project. There are already three pipelines in the Keystone project owned by TC Energy and this one would’ve added to this pipeline system, cutting through Native American land and the Ogallala aquifer, one of the world’s largest fresh water aquifers.
Then president Barrack Obama delayed the project in 2015 but Donald Trump gave permission to complete the Keystone XL around two months after taking office. Protests increased, there was unrest with the Native American communities affected and, just a month after Trump took action in favor of the pipeline, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave a report stating how this project would increase greenhouse gas emissions drastically and would go against the country’s clean energy proposal. During the 2014 elections this project became a heavily politicized issue and the scientific perspective was not properly voiced; it became a blue-vs-red type of problem.
Environmental protection has been this way for about half a century. The oil business had a huge economic boom in the 20th century and was only expected to grow with the increase in energy demand. At the time there was no regulation to stop big oil companies from growing by polluting uncontrollably. Even oil companies’ scientists were realizing the dangers of burning fossil fuels and politics had nothing to do with it. In early 1980, Exxon’s scientists wrote a report stating that burning fossil fuels had an extremely harmful effect in the environment, still this was ignored by the company due to the lowering prices of oil at the time. It is worrisome to think that there is a debate where no actual scientific evidence or concern for the future is considered to decide the fate of the world.
I am Ecuadorian, born and raised, but I was studying Environmental Engineering in the states, enough to see the Keystone XL project unfold in the politicians’ stage. I had an environmental policy class when Donald Trump was elected president and looking at this project reminded me so much of the power that these fossil fuel companies have. The lobbying, the covert constructions and the mismanagement of pollution. Big oil spills are reported on the news with almost no major reaction from the public because it is becoming something ordinary. Just in February of this year there was the massive oil spill in Israel and the Washington State oil spill. The risk to build these pipelines is there and the use of fossil fuels is causing more problems than solutions. Here in Ecuador, Petroecuador had to pay more than 33 million dollars for the deficient construction of a natural gas plant in 2020. Innovation is slowly showing the futility of these non-renewable resources and history is teaching the industry that it has been at risk of sinking for quiet some time now.
The fact that such a notable project is coming to an end is a small victory for those affected in the United States. Nevertheless, many people globally are affected by the impact of climate change everyday and as a species we are not taking any unified actions to prevent this harm. This concern is global but it is being resolved by segregated governments while unbiased opinions are left off the table and many officials are too afraid to look at the long-term consequences of their actions. Today I celebrate the halt of the possible 27.4 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide that would’ve been emitted yearly after coming from the Keystone XL pipeline. This is our planet and our home, and maybe one day we can find unity in protecting it so that everyone might enjoy it for a little bit longer.
Links:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/keystone-xl-oil-project-abandoned-by-developer-11623272010
Fossil Fuel Boom Rewiring North America’s Energy Infrastructure
Breath of Time
Steady circles of leaves
Carried by autumn winds
Light of dusk showering
The dancing fields of grass
A blink indenting
The new chapter of the trees
Orange turns to white
And the leaves whither
Leaving space for death
To carry the rest of winter
To gift with shine the time
Of births and blooms
When the bedsheets are turned over
Melted by the sun and the soils' newborns
She sings and grows greens
As spring breakers join with cheers
Like a cherry blossom pink
When a songbird begins to sing
Sprouts of life racing
To reach the clear blue Sky
Then A Midnight's Summer Dream
Wakes the people, land and seas
Vines and leafs halt their growth
As brother Sun razes the ground
Sister Moon changes clothes
To greet every stepping stone
In Mother's death and conception
In this in-progress space playground
Little toys in the big boys' sandbox
Of mountains, rivers, and oceans
Our chance for a spot in the family picture
Our choice to lend a hand to our grieving Mother
Here is a poem I wrote for the World Environment Day, I hope that it reminds everyone that we have a beautiful natural world here so we should take care of it. No matter how small the action we take, we have to start somewhere and keep on helping until we can truly live in a balanced environment.
Never-Ending Stone
Behind the prison of waves Where no clean shoes have set foot Amongst the antediluvian shipwrecks Amongst the rocky devouring maw The waves guarding the center Taking sanity as its toll For all just and honest, men, women, and others Darken their hearts with screams of agony Slowly soft eyes get filled with red vines Porcelain skin builds up rust The stormy winds erode all hope As you approach the spire before you Beware the sounds of madness Circling like vultures looking for carcasses Around the only source of light A turquoise green, rot-like shine The old fool still there Repeating the motions of yesterday And the day before and the one before Enslaved by a long-gone past Once colors of greed and decay Tainted by fear of the veil Of the final step to no man's land The wise mage sought more The stone of poems and songs A way to live past the ticking clock No wall too tall or price too high The desire was more than enough To see beyond the other side But the curse punished his greed All life was given to him indeed But mind and spirit would soon leave After years the wise fool saw The error of that first thought That life itself was ephemeral Just like the stones on the coast But all stars turn to dust All light leaves for dusk And so do the coastal hills Turn sharp and without their form So did his head So did his heart So did his soul Turn dark forevermore
Dinnertime Bell
Paranoia and pain creeping Like tumors growing with sickness Like hungry infections eating Mortality in timeliness In a second the ticking clock Can change the color of the sky The shy noon will soon leave in shock Once it hears the lonely dawn´s cry At eight o'clock that tranquil night Sounds of the buzzing street lights Only embers of life in sight When only silent dreams burn bright Twelve painful hours quickly pass Half a day gets devoured by A living nightmare with no chance To come out unscathed from this lie In brief instants, all smiles are gone In just seconds time almost froze In minutes death knocked on our door In two hours they said stage four Like a scenario for a play Where you expect only stories Heroes with a few words to say Of tragedies and comedies You don't expect the glare of time Looking back from the dark abyss Not your mother in a CAT scan Knowing that something is amiss Why wait for the final three chimes To let your heart burn with sorrow The truth is you won't find the time To live life with no tomorrow
Boiling Planet
So we are cooking in a pot of boiling water that even a frog would jump out of. The constant reminder that things are not getting better is so catastrophic for some people that it becomes too much to handle. Global warming and climate change seem like catastrophic events that will happen in the future. Paralyzing fear turning to deafness and some ask why ignorance is bliss. I don’t know the type of pain most people have been through and I am just as ordinary as the next guy, a mutant monkey hoping for survival.
So here is a video suming up a bit of this issue.
The idea that Earth might reach her expiry date before we figure out a solution is terrifying, and fear triggers that fight-or-flight reaction we can’t seem to overcome. I cannot bring forth a solution to the social perception of these issues nor can I think of an end-all method to stop climate change without some big sacrifices from humankind, but I can just remind people of this. Hope and courage will lead us to our tomorrow. Fear is only there to remind us, to present the challenge to all. Not everyone can make a big change but all the small changes will tip the scale in favor of our future.
Last Car Ride’s Sleep
Fast-paced blinks become
Tiny blankets to cover
Days of nightmares
Dark and scary routines
All liting the road ahead
All blue and black to shed
The streetlights damped
With the viscous mist
Coming from the steaming pile
Of lies littering my life
The empty road
Like a mattress store
With cushions painted in code
All pointed forwards
To a cloud of darkness
No markings in the beyond
The bedsheets as words
The music of silence
Turns smooth for a moment
With the tires screeching
Singing tunes of defeat
The mattress store closes
One last impulse buy
One last blink left
One last closing door
My eyelids praying to keep me awake
The side road motel room
Has grass for linen
The wallpapers tainted red
With my windshield
As the chandelier
As a kid I dreamt
I slept in a car bed
To drive far and away
From people and voices
Outside my dream's reach
With this crashing sleep
I can dig the grave
For the alarm clock
That kept me awake
Inside this bumpy car ride
Hoka Hey
Sunshine rising
Slowly fading
Only leaking gas
My fatal breath waving
Circling Night
Everything kinda sucks
At 4 am the night isn’t warmer
However closer the sun is to the horizon
Only brighter street lights and tree stumps
Enough waiting for midnight to pass
And my legs feel numb
Colder than the air around them
Drained from all desire to walk again
The ceiling could collapse this very second
But my body would stay still
No sense of danger
Although the fear would exist
The same kind of fear outside
Waiting behind the door
The same kind of feeling felt
From closing the bathroom door
No light in or out
But there is definitely something there
Can’t reach it or seek it
There
Walls painted black close in
Turning my bedroom
Into one big recycling bin
For unwanted trash
For silent pity
And whispered screams
For broken lamps
And cheap tears
The birds only singing about
The delay of one more night
After waiting for hours
For one more minute to pass
Crocodiles, canteen jars, broken clocks on the wall
And the stool is upside down
With the wood of the desk sticking out
From crashes but cars without
Puddles of pudding growing mold
Where sad foxes play with dust bunnies
No adult-rated content in their deaths
Just censored subtitles of their woes
Their anger scripted as comedy
For the conveniently placed characters
Outside my door
Wait
One more time maybe
They’ll listen this time
Or maybe they’ll open the door
And laugh at my naked thoughts
Barging in while I’m changing
To a more comfortable tone
For the viewers’ pleasure
So to each their own
Except for the cast of the show
Sitting behind the desk
Hiding mismatched socks
Hiding an unbuckled belt
Hiding the fat
And the ugly
And the sad
And the lonely
And the broken from all the wishing
To passing planes passing as shooting stars
There is no more space in my chair for me
With my legs unmoving
And the silence flooding
I can quit right
Maybe that’s the relief
Knowing I can sit somewhere else
Hugging the head of a tree
At noon
When the night is gone
And still, it’s there
Our Little Piece of Everything
The world is going to be okay Right now it really sucks The setting is changing People are angry Voices shouting and echoing A human reaction Us fighting against something Realizing something isn't right And we want to make it right The world knows Our planet moves in unison She grows, she changes Next to Us, a star child In the cold vastness of the universe We are the tail of the worm evolving And we need some scolding From Mother Earth For all the bullying we've done People dying and crawling Makes Us sad Unfairness and corruption Makes Us angry So the world will be okay Disease, war, starvation, death Unavoidable but fair and just So tiny So many good people Not realizing their goodness But the fondness In their hearts growing And they keep going Changing, creating, thinking The world, intertwined webs In child's play, We join We cheat We kill millions of animals We destroy thousands of habitats We extinguish millennia-old species an enemy Some say a parasite A virus even Then again A bully makes more sense A bully who's gets punched at home And takes it out on the little guy Keeps going the bully could do better things Learn We are wounded Broken Watered down And our home knows The world keeps moving It won't stop But Our movement, insignificant Barely leaving a trace For the Big Bang clock We are a millisecond No bigger change to make To the days and years A tiny bit of something In this huge and vast everything Soon We will have a chance To redeem ourselves from our corrupt deeds Like the bully getting into trouble We can change Because We know more We grow With the colors, We stir The world will be alright The only question remaining is If the world wants to be with Us Or without Us
Unturned
10% of the world has a sixth finger in their right hand. 7% tie their shoes the wrong way Only 2% don’t tie them at all 42% sob spontaneously at 11pm And 68% masturbate afterwards 2% look at sky thinking it’s a good day 74% won’t say Hi back to you when they don’t know you Numbers don’t lie right People do When walking on Rittenhouse Square you can test this Wave at all the strangers passing by Wait for them to look up the sky Look at their under-eye bags filled with stories The ones in black t-shirts just lost their jobs People walking their dogs have family stuff That one saxophone player is having a great day He might've been dumped by his girlfriend No one is reading their stories Their pages remain unturned Everyone walking on Walnut St Could have died the day before But their stories keep writing Can't stop walking through their books Telling their stories to themselves In the mirror with just looks Every morning getting up shedding Every gesture and motion fading Every memory once treasured ebbing In the flow of the neighbor's story In the narrative of another one's glory 76% of statistics are made on the spot And 100% are capable of love Turn the page of your book All you need is a little shove
