After the Failure of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

I suppose the leeches and joshua trees
may feel pleased.  And the endangered species
can't possibly feel worse off at the prospect of such a blaze.

I don't blame any one.  Not India.  Not China.
Not the U.K. or U.N. or you or me.
I can't blame the Republican Party

or the Democratic Party, as who can remember which is which?
I know one represents the wealthiest two percent and the other
the wealthiest five percent, though who bothers keeping that straight?

But the cacti and crickets look excited; they know,
after the dinosaurs, some small species did spectacularly.
Though they eye the catfish and the salamanders now

with a mushrooming hatred.

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