sliding to death

This poem was inspired by a story of a glacier sliding down a mountainside in the Alps due to global warming.

i’ve been here a thousand years
high up in the cold, clear air
of the mountains, watching life
come and go around me

now i am slowly disappearing, dying
it began as a trickle of water
flowing unnoticed down the rock
towards the valley below

a trickle turned into a cascade of
crystal clear water making birds,
mammals and people look up to see
this new waterfall creating its path

now no-one comes to see
i am so much smaller than i was
losing size and shape as i
slide down the mountain

i am losing my home
sliding into the
abyss of oblivion
my life is ebbing away

there is nothing i can do
to stop this, i am powerless
but you are not
you have the power to change

use it to stop
more deaths like mine
to maintain the fragile
balance earth needs to survive

use it to prevent
your own demise
or your death will be
the last one you see