Portside

Ideas to Postpone the End of the World

By Aileen Cassinetto, et al

“The Earth is speaking, she tells us that we have no more time.”

It sounds like cars going by, like a cat chasing her feathered toy, 

a dog barking, a murder of crows cawing, a buzzing. 

“It's time to look at the bigger picture.”

See the overcast sky and the still unlighted tree, 

watch the bird feeder that lies a few feet from the cat perch.                                                                

“We cannot eat coal, we cannot drink oil.”

But we can feel the curved edge of the table, 

a pen’s pointed nib, how light the empty mug.

“We are not drowning, we are fighting.”  

We can smell the fresh laundry 

but the apple doesn’t smell like an apple at all                       

“We have ideas to postpone the end of the world.”

We’ve swallowed the bitter fruit.             

Ideas to Postpone the End of the World” developed from an ecopoetry workshop led by San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto. The title was inspired by a speech by youth activist Txai Surui during the COP26 Summit. Found lines were quoted from the article, “Generation Climate: How the crisis made young people the adults in the room,” by Rachel Ramirez (CNN, November 5, 2021).

Aileen Cassinetto is an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and the Poet Laureate of San Mateo County. She is the founder of Paloma Press and the author of two poetry collections and three chapbooks. Her work has appeared in POETRY,  Marsh Hawk Press Review, Moria, and poets.org. She received a Special Congressional Recognition and was appointed Commissioner on the San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women in 2021. She is a 2022 Metro Film and Arts Foundation grantee.