by Iris Herriot

“US cave system’s bats and insects face existential threat: discarded Cheetos”
—The Guardian

Our cave-bound bats and insects
Are paying for our mess.
What makes them, and their kin sects,
Decline and deliquesce?

Dropped sodas, dumped Doritos!
But more appalling yet
These undisposed-of Cheetos—
An Existential Threat.

There’s trash around Montmartre
(I’m sure that that is true),
Enough to sadden Sartre,
Or at the least Camus;

No doubt the French mosquitoes
Resent each dropped baguette;
But nothing equals Cheetos
For Existential Threat.