Forest of Sleeping Beauty

In Reinhardswald

the forest of Sleeping Beauty

is dying

the curse upon it

has caused a drought

and a plague of beetles

destroying the lush spruce 

until the green needles

are all shed

and the trees lie on the ground

like bones.

Humankind has 

wrought this 

devastation 

we have carried the curse

into the castle 

like most fairy stories 

there is a grave warning 

if we want to live.

Climate change 

is the sharpened spindle

that is piercing us

in the form of the prince

we have 

seized what we desired

and never thought about 

the cost

and now we have received 

our inheritance.