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Death of the Amazon
The juicy beef burger before you releases tantalizing aromas
The melted cheese slowly oozing and melting
Your purebred American heart.
So go on
Enjoy that burger
And let me tell you a story.
Once,
Stretching across the vast expanses of South America
Was the Amazon rainforest
A wilderness haven ringing with
The squawking of toucans beneath lush foliage
The roars of jaguars and snorts of tapirs that shake ancient kapok trees
And the splashing of red piranhas and spirited otters.
A wonderfully wild cacophony
Exuberating in the vigor of Life that pulsated
At the heart of the Amazon.
But then, monsters
Under the moniker of humans
Thrust their crude, abominable bulldozers
Into the endless sprawls of forest
And felled the silent giants
Trees
Which had withstood torrential monsoons rains
And surging floods
Which had provided shade for generation upon generation of
Indigenous medicine men and children
Who would sing songs of worship and revelry
To the deity of the Amazon
Mother Nature.
But now
Within the span of a few short seconds
The eons-old kapoks and brazil nut trees
Topple to the ground with thunderous crashes
That crush the spines of the dew-laden young flowers
Just thrusting their heads out of the rich loam.
The earth-shattering tolls of death
And the devilish screeching of the saws
Of industry and agriculture
Strike fear into the hearts
Of richly-plumed birds
Majestic caimans
And chattering monkeys
So that they flee before the raging inferno
Of humanity’s greed
And into the yellowed pages
Of tattered history textbooks
Never to be seen again.
And when
The earth is a barren desert
Thick with the rotting stench of death
Endless hordes of grunting cows
Are poured forth into the desolate wasteland
Their hides diseased and matted with grime.
They trudge through rank piles of manure
Under a dirty sky of smog
Their ears ringing with
The buzzing of vast swarms of flies
An ugly, wretched travesty of
The wild cacophony whispered by
The bones of the Amazon that lie suffocating
Beneath the earth.
So go on.
Dig into that good ol’ hamburger
Relish in the savory juices that dribble
Down your chin
But maybe think a little.
Remember the Amazon.
Perhaps you don’t want to kill
This planet
Just yet.
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The hamburger has become iconic of American cuisine. I hope this piece challenges readers to think about the environmental impact of this omnipresent food staple.