I would like to apologize

On behalf of my predecessors

To the many creatures we carelessly exterminated

Or hunted to extinction.

I can’t imagine myself

Feeling good about shooting

The last of a species so

It’s embarrassing to know there were some who

Chased down the dodo, the moa, and the Japanese wolf

The great auk, the Tasmanian Tiger and the sea mink

Until there were none left alive.

And I’d like to apologize on behalf of my contemporaries

Who continue to deforest and destroy

So that habitats and food sources are lost

For creatures as impressive as the orangutan

And ones as delicate as the monarch butterfly

Who live on the brink of being the only one.

We are as arrogant as we are powerful

And it means that one day

Children might grow up in a world

Without polar bears and elephants and sea turtles.

What a tragedy,

And even more so because it would have been preventable

If we hadn’t decided

That we were more deserving of this world

Than the creatures we share it with.