Look Away

What do you do when a homeless woman
babe in arms puts out her hand to you
how long do you think about her
that you should or shouldn't have
given 
how much have you done to 
purify your water recycle trash
shared your money with charity
how much do you look away
from unpleasantness from dirt
and decay from disease as you go
about you daily routines enjoy your
dinner sip your wine relax in front
of the television as you solve the
mystery you are reading brush your 
teeth
go to bed snug in clean sheets
do you know that green slime
oozes into rivers of Florida
that fish are dying that the great
Gulf of Mexico is becoming  
a toilet a cesspool of oil and filth
what do you think as you snap
photos of sunsets looking away
from the drains that empty runoff
otherwise called sewage flowing into the 
sea
Are we all looking away now
no longer just Dixie 
as the bees and butterflies
we kill disappear as poison goes
from our environment into our 
minds making us live in a fantasy
that everything is just fine 
absurd as thinking virgins 
long for terrorists in heaven
absurd as the idea of an after-life
Or wouldn't it be wiser friends
to look away from our illusions
better to look death in the eye
see what is happening to the land
and all who live upon it
the lights will out and the stars
shine