Be advised: this poem may be interrupted
by a nuclear war.
Home is a blue-green planet,
a pale blue dot in a vast universe,
a water planet hurtling through space
with its precious cargo, life.
If it comes, it is likely to be a short
but cataclysmic nuclear war.
Home has been a place not too hot
and not too cold, a place just right
for life to flourish.
Lately, though, we’ve caused our home
to heat up and the seas to rise.
In a nuclear war, it is said
that the living will envy the dead.
On this day of celebration
of our only planet, we are in danger
of being slowly boiled or quickly fried
or otherwise being made inoperable.
We have still not learned to share
with each other, or to love each other
and our home. We must try harder.
Be advised: Earth, even life itself,
will survive without us.
It is for ourselves that we must change
our ways.
