The clock is ticking

How many more days will pass

Without remark, counting down

Until the clock has stopped

The moment was lost (or stolen)

For a game that only counted scores on a board

When did it become easier to 

Walk away than stay

Obey than draw a line

Forsake the future for the past

Reminisce now for it will not last

Decisions must be made at haste

Before Earth resembles Mars

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The clock is ticking explores the urgency of acting before irrevocable loss — confronting the human tendency towards avoidance, short-term thinking and passive obedience at a moment when the future of the earth itself hangs in the balance.