Ben Nardolilli currently lives in New York City. His work has appeared in Perigee Magazine, Red Fez, Danse Macabre, The 22 Magazine, Quail Bell Magazine, Elimae, fwriction, Inwood Indiana, Pear Noir, The Minetta Review, and Yes Poetry.

The Neo-Lorax

Wounded nature demands to be saved,
I guess it must be really bad
Because nature is willing to stop being nature
And scream out for human nurturing
In terms a human like me can understand

No more mysterious cycles,
No more instinctual dealings with animals,
No more silent majorities sitting off
On the side while the world gets hotter,
Now nature is wounded and quivering

Then again, the request to help is not
From a bird perched inside my apartment,
And it is not from a gang of branches
Curving together to form words
That cry out from the bark for salvation

No, nature is somehow communicating
With the regional director
Of a green charity, who relays to me
What nature wants and how badly
Nature needs it from me by cash or credit