We hit the highway seeking cool fun and found a fierce Wyoming sun,
Where Sheridan’s heat records broke, and turned our holiday to smoke.
No bugs were on the windshield glass, a silent sign of what will pass.
The Beaver fire then choked the air; with the campout cancelled in despair.
No fireworks allowed to light the night, as dry winds spark a sudden fright.
Back home, the grid began to groan as ACs hummed in every home.
The power died, the fan stood still, the heat crept up the window sill.
We sought the water, cool and deep, but found a reservoir asleep,
Lake Powell’s banks were white and dry, a bathtub ring against the sky.
Green toxic algae choked the shore, a warning sign on nature’s door,
While further North, the Salt Lake dies, as toxic dust begins to rise.
And while our climate burns to ash, our leaders chase the corporate cash.
They shrink the lines of Bears Ears land to put more oil in private hands,
They build great data centers high to suck the grid and rivers dry,
And beat the drums of foreign doom, to bomb Iran while we consume.
They’d rather fund a distant war than face the crisis at our door.
But hope remains if we awake, to vote and fight for our home’s sake,
Together, united, we can turn the tide, and cast the politics aside.
Jared Lounsbury-Decker, St. George