Dust Bowl on t.v.

by Karen Friedland

Look what you did,

fools!

You ripped up my protective coat—

15 inches of Buffalo grass—

and killed all the buffalo, too,

while you were at it.

You left my bare body exposed

to the wind and drought

which blew it away.

You killed the coyote

that kept the jack rabbits in check,

and then you killed them too, with sticks,

when, famished,

they ate the only green things left.

You killed your own cattle

when all you had to feed them was tumbleweed.

And then came the grasshopper plague

which you treated with poison, of course

and then the dead and dying children—

truly, it was biblical.

Proving once again

that every little thing

affects every single thing,

and you can truly count on humans

to destroy that chain,

over and over again.