Oilman George W. Bush's hollow eye sockets - Advertisement

Progressive, The, June, 2003 by Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr.

"Like President Theodore Roosevelt who created the National Wildlife Refuge System 100 years ago, President Bush is committed to protecting our valuable wildlife heritage now and for future generations."

Gale Norton

Secretary of the Interior

October 4, 2002

   Oilman George W. Bush's hollow eye sockets
   protrude with oil wells penetrating permafrost
   in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's "Coastal Plain,"
   America's "Serengeti."
   Nation's pristine-premier birthing, nursing ground for Arctic
   wildlife. Nesting for millions of birds:
   Tundra Swans from the Chesapeake,
   Sandhill Cranes from the Southwest,
   Golden Plover from South America,
   Red-throated and Arctic Loons, phalarope, eiders, sandpipers.

   Autumn, more pregnant Polar Bears than anywhere in America
   haul ashore from the Beaufort Sea, den in drifts, in ice caves.
   Startled by trucks, helicopters, drillers shouting,
   mothers will abandon dens, imperil ounces-weighing cubs.

   Oilman George W. Bush's hollow eye sockets
   vent black liquid from the Arctic Refuge's "Coastal Plain,"
   survival land for lemming, fox, Grizzly Bear, Gray Wolf, Golden
   Eagle

   And for three hundred fifty Ice Age Musk Oxen.
   All seasons, these pre-historics pasture the "Coastal Plain."
   Winter, in 40-degree-below-zero dark winds,
   the square, short-legged mammals herd closely, move slightly.
   Almost ground-reaching black-brown shaggy hairs hold the warmth.
   Calves threatened, bulls and some cows circle their young,
   humped, silky shoulders pressed together,
   massive horns arced toward wolves.

   Oilman George W. Bush's hollow eye sockets
   jiggle from 80-mile-per-hour SUVs
   overtaking more SUVs
   on the Los Angeles Freeway, Long Island Expressway, Capital Beltway
   exhausting 200-day capacity--perhaps a little more--of "Coastal
   Plain" oil.

   One hundred, twenty-nine thousand Barren Ground Caribou,
   the Porcupine River herd,
   yearly yearn toward their calving on the "Coastal Plain."
   These migrating, high-stepping deer negotiate the spring storms.
   Their four-toed "snowshoe" hoofs support them on icy crust,
   paw aside snow for gray-green lichen.

   The Porcupine River caribou press over aged routes,
   bulls in sinuous columns,
   females months-heavy with the new generation,
   all trekking for the "Coastal Plain"--
   flourishing tundra habitat of green-brown sedge.
   Everywhere in June cumulus puffs of Cottongrass Flowers--caribou
   staple.

   Oilman George W. Bush's hollow eye sockets see
   "Texas North" of pipelines, gravel pads, roads
   runways, garbage disposal, basketball courts.
   Here the caribou cow drops her single eight-pound calf.
   The newborn struggles on stumbly legs, nurses, runs, frisks.

   One June week on the "Coastal Plain" of the Arctic National
   Wildlife Refuge, birthing of tens of thousands of Barren Ground
   Caribou calves.

Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. [c] E-mail: Maxwell623@aol.com. Permission Given To Use This Poem With Author Credit.