top of page

One hundred years from now

a group of people talks

about how one hundred

years ago there were people

who weren’t sure they would

survive the destruction

they began. They talk about

how they are still trying to undo

the damage, but they lived.

 

One hundred years from now

this group of people talks

about how when we undefined

ourselves, stopped trying

to box ourselves in, to countries,

to identities, to always othering,

we were able to move together

as one, to be stronger

as a planet of creatures descended

from creatures like us, who love,

who make sounds, who feed, and feel.

 

One hundred years from now,

they talk about a climate crisis

and how we turned things around.

They talk about how courageous

we were, they say we stood up

to corporate greed, stood up

to the killing off of animals,

plants, clean water, clean air,

our food, ourselves.

 

In the end, they say the two words:

climate crisis weren’t cliché, or

too hippy or too square, not too

paranoid or enlightened. They say

we started noticing magnolias,

patterns of butterflies, milkweed, soil,

our lungs. They say we started noticing

Earth and how we too are a part of it

and that it began with the breath,

with love, one step at a time.

Liza Wolff-Francis is the 8th Poet Laureate of Carrboro, North Carolina and she has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She is a feminist ecopoet and has taught creative writing workshops for over a decade. Her writing has been widely published and her website is

bottom of page