My feet are bare, books on how to read Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature surround me as I stare out the big, glass windows that look down on CSUSM. The college's track is bordered on the West side by a hill crowned in trees of all sorts – pines, palm, eucalyptus, cypress, and others. A pair of hawks can always be found circling above this sparse green haven, always with a keen eye and sharp look. They patrol the open, untouched fields that lay on the outskirts of the college. Despite an added dirt parking lot, the raptors have continued to feast on ground squirrels and rabbits (meals which the trim grasses of the campus provide).
I have been admiring all the the (limited) scenery here, what with the sun behind a thick fog, giving everything a dreamy effect. In that, I hear behind me a multitude of people – a campus tour. The leader of the group proceeds to point out the landmarks beyond the glass window panes. Her finger conjures death as it points to that arborial hillside, “That is where our new building is going up. There will be room on the first floor for students to gather...” and her words drone on, but I cannot hear them for the blood pounding in my ears. A building? There? Why?
Where are Edward Abbey and Thoreau and Emerson? Where are Nature's Heroes?
Please, pave right over my heart
for it is inconvenient to your “progress”,
I've no need for it either:
(or so I would lead you to believe).
Faithless. Faceless. Heartless bastards!
Destroy with your hand what you
cannot see with your eyes.
Yet Nature in Herself will stay
despite your vicious attempts.
Contractors, engineers: Beware!
For Edwards Abbey was right:
we will outlive you!
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