They didn’t hear Cassandra,
now they walk away from me.
Should seers just stop talking?

All the prophets stilled, who
cannot seem to light today
with the fires of tomorrow?

As the time to act grows small,
those about to die recede, like deer
among the shadow-spotted trees.

And I can only call to them
with ugly truths.

Patricia Nelson works with the “Activist” poets in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her new book, Monster Monologues, is due out from Fernwood Press in December 2024.