Only So Long©️🏞️🌬️by Felina Silver

We forget that water remembers—
every storm-swollen street, every pipe
that sighs open when the rain comes heavy,
sending what we’d rather not see
into the rivers that once held only sky.

No More CSO’s

These CSOs—quiet breaches,
secret doorways carved by convenience—
carry our carelessness downstream.
Plastic dreams, chemical ghosts,
the runoff of our daily hurry—
all of it settling in the belly
of the lakes that cradle our towns.

But Mother Nature, patient though she is,
is no bottomless well of forgiveness.
Her kindness is a long breath held,
a hand outstretched over and over
to children who forget she is not invincible.

She whispers in algae blooms,
in fish that vanish like unkept promises,
in rain that falls heavier each season:
“Be mindful. I can bear your burdens,
but not your indifference.”

So let us listen—
let us guard the waters that guard us,
mend the places where our systems spill
more than stormwater into her open palms.

For she can be kind for a lifetime,
but only if we remember
that kindness is a covenant,
not an endless well
to muddy as we please.