Vote for the Earth!

BY CHARLES MALONE

I am from Laurentia
Ohio’s 13th
The Great Lakes
From the maple beech forests of the Cuyahoga river
Our crooked river flows through my basement during our late summer thunderstorms
It crosses three congressional districts while feeding our cornfields and soybeans
This summer we set it on fire for the fourteenth time
Still, silver sycamores grow tall on its banks
Deer slash through the fallen leaves
Still, the river otters and eagles are returning
Like the kayakers and cyclists who learn each bend
Each flicker of sunset on water
For the first time in a generation