Today We Welcome You to View the Sea in Zhengzhou

Near here, just yesterday,
On a southbound freeway
In Utah, USA,

Twenty-two cars piled up
In a summer sandstorm,
Leaving eight people dead,

Five in one car—also
Many hospitalized.
That’s one way you could die.

Plenty do. In Zhengzhou,
They were still shoveling
Their way out of the mud

From another flash flood,
The death toll for which stood
At around seventy.

Similarly, people
Were still counting bodies
From floods in Germany,

And California
Reported large wildfires
Now merging in the north,

Forcing more residents
In cornered towns to flee.
Fire or flood could kill you.

The world is ending soon
For someone—more someones
Stirring more boiling pots.

Every death is local.
Only the local hurt.
What are you going to do?

No, really. What are you
Going to do? Local
Death’s as local as you.