Literature – Ecosystemic Magazine

14May

By Ema MieleNo Comments

The Rainbow Rule – Poetry

Image courtesy of Ariana ThorntonWritten by Ema MieleRed is the color of poppies,Orange is the color of daylilies,Yellow is the color of dandelions,Green is the color of pine trees,Blue is the color of the sky,Indigo is the color of orchids,Purple is the color of lilacs,But as nature gets polluted, cut, and trashed,Our world turns dull and gray;Underneath the clouds hides a rainbow,One that our world can uncover again;Treat the Earth the way you want to be treated-The rainbow rule.

Sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial – Poetry

14May

By Audrey WuNo Comments

Activism & Social Change, Literature

Sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial – Poetry

Image courtesy of Dean OliverWritten by Audrey WuI watch the sunriseeach morning at the Lincoln MemorialIt is barely winteronly late November, but there’s a quieteeriness, a hint of knitted frostblanketingour sleeping nationI watch the sunriseand wonder what they saw when they built thiswhat they would have thought of someone like mean American, who belongs to this countryas much as it belongs to meas much as the men on those rusted copper penniesyet theirs are the faces immortalizedtheirs are the names memorializedI watch the sunrisebut it is creeping closer and closer stillthe curtain is drawingand through the tilted blindsthe light seeps through.The ground can’t be greenwhen our “Fathers” spilled the blood,crimson with each golden glare of the afterglow.When will you see thatthis n...

14May

By Ariana ThorntonNo Comments

Activism & Social Change, Literature

The Story of Us – Poetry

Image courtesy of NASAby Ariana Thorntonwe are not the beginning.not the pinnacle of evolution as we’ve been taughtnot the center of the universe as we once believedbut one motif in the ever-growing intricacy of nature’s tapestry. nobody agrees on what makes the human condition unique among animals. our cognition? communication? intelligence?all animals feel pain,many feel fear and love,some possess an intellect similar to our own.we communicate through pheromones,we click, we whistle, we wail. we are as animal as the sea sponge, as curious as the octopus,as resourceful as the chimpanzee.so what, then, gives us–a species neither as successful as the antnor as ancient as the sea star–the right to call ourselves masters of all nature?nature has had 4.5 billion years ...

14May

By Esme HyattNo Comments

Activism & Social Change, Literature

What Environmentalism Means to Me

Image courtesy of Margot RichardWritten by Esme HyattWhen discussing environmentalism, I think the general response is to focus on the planet. To me, however, it kindles thoughts around humans’ impact on the environment and the environment's impact on humans. I first got involved in environmentalism in 2019, when I was in middle school. What got me initially interested was not climate change’s effect on the environment, but its effect on humans. Seeing numerous articles detailing the overarching repercussions of climate change on human life made me realize how necessary it was for me and others to get involved. Ultimately, all consequences of climate change influence human life. It's the intersection of climate change and human health that I think is incredibly important. Fossil...

11Mar

By Ariana ThorntonNo Comments

Literature

Shrouded Poem

Photo Credits: Environmental Justice Is Our Cry of Defense Ricardo Levins Morales By Ariana Thornton Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Richmond, California, Cancer Alley of Louisiana, and more are covered by a funeral shroud—smoke plaguing from nearby oil, gas, and plastic plants, festering in low-income communities, Black and Brown bodies, to produce asthma, lung disease, heart disease, strokes. Take the hours-long drive to Great Falls now, and watch comfortably spaced houses of suburban neighborhoods dissolve into acres of woodlands, expanses of lawns (well-manicured, green), beautiful mansions in the richest, most coveted zip code in Virginia, where well water is clear and forest air is fresh, where ...

28Jan

By Yossi RosenNo Comments

Literature

A Tree Story– Flash Fiction

By Yossi Rosen Prologue: Once upon a time, in a forest in California, a tree thinks, Drawing breaths and weaving a floral wreath of recollection. Fallen leaves, a sudden drop in the woods, from one to two to innumerable others. Pressed down against this identity as a template of what was, what could have been, an application of pressure. Like a mosaic of this and that and when and who. A fallen branch rippling in introspection. Afterward, out of consideration, the tree is incinerated. Sometime after a most curious boy thinks. Chapter 1: My nanny, a hipster mom of three, thought it was sacrilegious to pass trees or any form of wildlife without worrying about them, like ignoring the facts, science even. Don’t be so blasé she would say, and I would respond, Stop being such a peda...

8Nov

By Quinn LaudenNo Comments

Literature

Untitled

By Quinn Lauden a beam of light sets slowly over a sharp rigidly beautiful mountain but it has yet to rise again we are stuck in the dark in the smoke we are searching for air but are guided by suits with dollars for eyes whose goal just is not the same the seas, the fields, the skies, the tides, are being taken over by ignorance by shortsighted vision for the green of a paper, for the benefit of an account, of a status and this beauty of the world that surrounds us is lessening. the trees are not as colorful the grass is not as green the oceans, not as clear. And all the while Creatures disappear people starve and suffer we fear of losing life nevertheless, the world responds. light strikes stronger the world blows at us harder and the tears of the earth pound aiming to kil...

8Nov

By Julianne ParkNo Comments

Literature

Do you?

By Julianne Park Do your lips crack when you stand at the podium the way the ground cracks beneath our feet, dry from ferocious heat waves and blistering winds? Do you reach over to sip the water we never had, because the grass for your green lawns and bentgrass are drowning from sprinklers so you can get a hole-in-one? Do you hear the sound of children screaming and houses burning and fire alarms blaring and families weeping or is your luxurious extravagant mansion sound proof too? Do your tear ducts fill with tears and trickle down those cold gray cheeks because you destroy the lives of millions and our futures? —or it is because your stock plummeted and the cash sitting in your vault is not growing fast enough? By Elson Bankoff

4Jun

By Rhianna SearleNo Comments

Literature

Shifting Biomes, Shifting Minds

By Rhianna Searle Our climate changes and our society stagnates. We’ve grown among deciduous forests, but the biomes are shifting. So why aren’t we? Dirt is a derogatory word– don’t you see! How can we elevate the ground we walk on? Get down in it, Go out and touch it: the turtles with scarred red geometry the frozen pond with spider cracks the native oaks, fathers of the forest. This is how you translate dirt into soil. This is how you personify the pie charts. This is how you shift the science into the streets. This is how you peel the world off the page and into action.

22May

By Rhianna SearleNo Comments

Literature

Roe the Boat

By Rhianna Searle I learned about autonomyin geography class.Your decision invades my body. Women sailed in the seventiesto uncharted independence.Fifty years later, we pick up the paddles. It’s simple really,you want more babies,more worker beesto pollinate your precious economy. Women become the hive.You translate humans into hexagonsfrom a documentthat was never written for us.We become cartographerswriting our rightsin sharpie on each other’s arms:directions. You slice us down like sunflowerson the verge of blossom. America has a broken sense of belonging. On land that was stolenfrom our Indigenous sisters We...