Ripton, Vermont
February 25, 2016
 
Forty-seven degrees up in the forested hills of Ripton,
Light rain. 
A few minutes of distant lightning and thunder.
The ice on the driveway is rotten, melted here and there down to the gravel.
The snow in the woods is virtually gone.
Virtually gone.
While the stream that usually gurgles as it runs near the house
Today roars with a torrent of dirty water.
 
The hills are hemorrhaging water.
What should flow down the mountain in April and May and June
Is now pouring down in February.
Come June, the streams may well be dry. 
 
I read last week in the Bennington newspaper
That many weekend ski events have been canceled for lack of snow.
However, the Snocross folks are making artificial snow
So that the snow-scooters can roar around … burning their oil all day. 
 
My hybrid is burning oil, so I stopped at a dealership in Bennington.
I asked whether they had any electric cars. Nope.
Any hybrids? Might be a few.
A sea of cars on the lot wrapped around us. All with 20th-century engines.
 
Yes, the hills are hemorrhaging water.
And we, all seven billion of us, are hemorrhaging what little time we have left.
 
John Slade
Ripton