Chronicle of a Rescued World 

The planet’s lungs, once torn, 

now breathe with the rhythm of an ancient oak, 

its branches, veins laden with new sap, 

reaching toward a sky that has forgotten the toxic haze. 

We were blind sculptors, 

carving cracks in the earth’s skin, 

extracting gold from its bones, 

without hearing the lament that rose from the roots. 

The ocean, a shattered mirror of plastic, 

reflected our indifference, 

its creatures, stars drowned in the abyss. 

But one day, 

the echo of a dying hummingbird 

pierced the glass of our deafness. 

We saw the moss wither on the edge of the stones, 

the sun, a pale coin amidst the smoke. 

We were reborn, not from maternal wombs, 

but from urgency, from transparent guilt. 

Each tree planted, a silver thread on a damaged loom, 

each river cleaned, the pupil of an ancient god regaining its sight. 

Now, the bees, tiny goldsmiths of the air, 

dance over fields that don’t smell of chemical lament. 

The mountains, wise guardians of memory, 

rise up, green scars that tell of our redemption. 

Our hands, once weapons of felling, 

are now architects of nests, 

tilling the earth with the respect of those who sow a future. 

Conscience, a beacon lit in the fog of oblivion, 

guides our steps toward the embrace of the wild. 

This is the time of the second chance, 

where the jaguar’s roar is not a legend, 

and the whisper of the wind brings the promise of skies without ash. 

We have learned that life is not a loan, 

but a symphony we must protect, 

each note, each being, 

indispensable. 

We have been the castaways who found their shore, 

not building new ships, 

but repairing the only one we had: 

this blue, vibrant, and fragile home, that breathes with us.

GRACIELA NOEMI VILLAVERDE is a writer and poet from Concepción del Uruguay (Entre Rios) Argentina, based in Buenos Aires She graduated in letters and is the author of seven books of poetry, awarded several times worldwide. She works as the World Manager of Educational and Social Projects of the Hispanic World Union of Writers and is the UHE World Honorary President of the same institution’s Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. She is the Commissioner of Honor in the executive cabinet in the Educational and Social Relations Division of the UNACCC South America – Argentina Chapter.