Equinox: Greta in Poland

Because they were rich and clever, all

the ambassadors designed an echo chamber

of glass and platitudes, and took turns denying

the future. And because they were old, only

the next few years mattered, and so they pushed around

tarnished words like chess pieces in their narrow grid:

progress, growth, stability—

words any child could see were obscene, were

a screen obscuring catastrophe. So Greta stood

and showed them what maturity looks like,

what truth sounds like,

what leadership feels like,

and then she went home to change us.