Sonnet 11

Verdant Valleys

West, from a bluff, I see a verdant valley
Clothed in varied greens that eyes sight.
Unfolding leaves wishing deep green, dally,
Waiting for high skies, warm days, sunny bright :

Producing chlorophyl is their desire,
Multiplying in numbers to pump breath
Onto Earth. Exchange is what leaves require,
Plus sunshine, water, and food from soil's depth :

Life's food, pressure squeezed into fossil fuel
From deep down, this carbon now seeks release
For what ? Pollution, climate change, storms rule: 
Twentieth Century found power, not peace.

Advance walks giant strides, mostly thought blind ;
Words state facts, time arbitrates for the mind.

Ronald C Downie