Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Two Degrees Centigrade
Salt whispers words Elusive as tears, Secrets best heard Before the sea
Engulfs us all.
For Like a fall of hair, Smoke veils A Syrian girl’s tears, As burning tires
Belch toxins.
For Koala paws, Scorched black, Grope and twitch
In spark flecked air.
For Dying pines Weep moonlight Onto Yosemite granite
At November’s end.
Winter winds whimper a dirge For dying pines For dying bears,
For dying girls.
Winds whimper a dirge
For us all.
Robert Walton’s novel, Dawn Drums was awarded first place in the 2014 Arizona Authors Association’s literary contest and also won the 2014 Tony Hillerman Best Fiction Award. With Barry Malzburg, Walton wrote The Man Who Murdered Mozart, published by Fantasy & SF in 2011. His “Do you feel lucky, Punk?” received a prize in the 2018 Bartleby Snopes dialog only contest. Most recently, his story, “Tryst” was published in The Ghost Story. Robert is a retired middle school teacher and a lifelong mountaineer with many ascents in the Sierras and Pinnacles National Park. He lives in King City, California.
Please visit his website for more information about him: http://chaosgatebook.wordpress.com/