" AND SO FORTH

Someone, or a group of someones,
Has gone to consider the strange altered behavior
Of penguins along the tip of south America.
It’s a film and reporting thing to do.
And someone like me thinks upon it.
Here in darkest Binghamton, I think of the plight of penguins
In the rapidly changing climate
Of the oceans and polar regions.
…as an Adelie penguin becomes my own penguin,
Inside my skull, even its oil-coated sleek body
That stands and waddles toward its own nest,
Somewhere among the million other nests,
And its own chick crying out
Among the million others, is distinctive.
Can I hope the great ear of the universe
Is pressed to the wall of space and hears me,
Its own chick peeping? Over here in this galaxy,
This little freight of penguins
And so forth? "

― Ruth Stone , Essential Ruth Stone