Young Poets 13 to 15 –

"War on Losing Earth" by Laila Garay

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May 15th, 2026

Young Poets 13 to 15 Contest #2 – First Place

War on Losing Earth

by Laila Garay

Give gratitude to the generous earth, your caretaker and landlord
cries salty tears – and you have no heart, though it breathes and writhes

in your chest. Though you are animal and bone and drawn by strings
of nature and fortune. 

Ashore great minds spin golf balls on needles and shoot red bullets at stones.
Call ourselves apes and chimps but intellectuals and superiors the same.

In old times, festival in mother’s soil worth similar that of time spent
watching eerie television. Toothpicks did not pry glaciers, they fell 

by calling to water. You had no effect on her, a blade of grass in endless 
revolution. You ran like wolves, savage and innate and drank from the same

pool as crickets. Now, your living, breathing words carry massive weight. They
have become real. While your engrossed mind frolicks in the clouds, careless, as your

real, living body steps on landmines and perfect ripe apples. You save hopeless
bunnies from predation, conquer death. Believe it, you have commandeered this world.

Made the earth your second hand. Proud of powdered pompish accomplishments:
math,reading, philosophy – but you stand to spoil her all the same. Pass it to human
nature that you 

have tried many revolutions but always result in salvation bombs. My dear Earth, in
small fits of rage – she furrows her brows, squeezes humanity between her temples.
But humanity can fly 

and shoot sonic rays, gifts no god has given great Earth. Mother’s children have
turned tide against her. Spraying her lava blood upon such specious, godly demands.

Halfwitted and brainless, you lead revolt against your own beating heart. For this,
I ask, please, have mercy on her, you have manipulated the odds, and this is a losing
game.

About the Poet
Laila Garay resides in Skokie, Illinois, United States.
Read the poet's biography and Young Poets World publications on Laila Garay's Artist Page.

Young Poets Collection
This poem is also featured in Young Poets Collection #2, published in the Young Poets World Library.

Keywords: Human Nature, Environment, Climate Change

Previously published in Young Poets 13 to 15:
The Words on the Paper
by Elise Loughran

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