It Was So Beautiful I Had To Kill It

You have some audacity
Speaking to me about conservation
Or preaching a love of wilderness
When your relationship is obviously
That of an abusive spouse

You do not care
You do not commune
You do nothing
Unmotivated by self-serving greed

When screaming down
Dirt trails and snow packed roads
Straddling your mechanical monsters
What exactly are you trying to appreciate

All you hear is the howl of engines
All you smell is black exhaust
You see nothing of the wild turkeys
Red fox and snowshoe hare
Left terrorized in your wake
You care nothing for the lichen and fern
Shredded beneath your tires
You think little of the solace
Sought by an endangered few
Who actually understand
Our place in this web

You are lazy and loud
Brutish and ignorant
Ugly and predictably human

Do not lie to me about your love
Of mountains
Rivers and forests
We both know
You are only out here
Because your own backyard
Is not big enough and
Because your neighbors will not tolerate
Such destruction
In the one place
I would be hard-pressed
To even notice