The Season's Green Genocide - Walker Resnick

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The yellow veins of light spread out

Across the leaf as blades of grass

Softly caress the red face of the

Curled up piece of what had once

Been so vibrantly green.

It sits among so many

Other individual stories.

Stories of what were once

Green but now yellow,

Brown, red, and all shades

In between.

A field of dead leaves

Blanketing a bed of resentful

grass. The great battle is being

Waged again.

The desperate, competition

For sunlight and the desolate hope

That they will not be forgotten

By the men raking, or even better

Those huge blow-dryers

Called leaf blowers.

The knowledge that all is hopeless,

That the white, wet snow will slowly

Smother their dreams. All their hopes

Fears, and ambitions will forever be

Snuffed out. It is hard to live an entire

Life, an entire generation in a year.

Photo Courtesy of Rebecca Hamilton

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Walker Resnick is a junior at UMass Amherst in the English Department. He is 24 years old and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. He intends to become a school teacher. Walker writes poetry and prose across many different subject areas. He is deeply concerned with environmental and climate change issues and is in continual awe of the complex and beautiful workings of nature.

Walker can be reached at wresnick@umass.edu