I cried when I first saw the Sunrise Powerlink’s steel structures begin to scar our beautiful San Diego back country. What better way to assauge grief than to write in my journal? This is the poem that came out of those writings. I’m honored to have it recently  published by Pudding Magazine in Open Earth II Eco Poems. I hope you will find it thought-provoking.


Ecocide San Diego

And now all of a sudden
they appear like something
out of a Mad Max movie,
stealing pastoral views.
These monstrosities
march along hillsides,
dip down and through
St. Vicente’s Reservoir,
zig-zag all the way to
California’s coast with
connecting wires longer
than any crazy zipline.

Black tar ribbons widen to
allow pollution-spewing
vehicles to speed ever faster.
Golden poppied meadows
gouged to make way for tile
roofed tract houses. Developer
fees promise tiny pocket parks.

Dairy farms, horse trails,
the San Diego River
suffocated by shopping
malls, hotels, a stadium.
And people wonder at
floods that come with
every rampant rainstorm.