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# The Planet Jeff Bezos Returned To
- URL: https://www.andyposner.org/the-planet-jeff-bezos-returned-to/
- Published: 2021-07-21T12:58:18.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-15T05:03:03.000Z
- Description: Jeff Bezos did not leave the planet any better than he found it, though he is rich enough to leave it and return, alive. As I watch the skies, greedy mosquitos stalk me like a herd of tiny buffalo.
- Author: Andy
- Tags: Be The Change, poetry, climate change, Politics, #Migrated-1784090317409, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-15 04:39

Jeff Bezos did not leave the planet any better than  
he found it, though he is rich enough to [leave it and return, alive](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/20/tech/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-launch-scn/index.html?ref=andyposner.org). As I watch the skies, greedy mosquitos  
stalk me like a herd of tiny buffalo. Swatting them  
away, I order cortisone cream on Amazon.  
Triumphant, Jeff [thanks his employees and customers](https://www.newsweek.com/jeff-bezos-thanks-amazon-workers-customers-after-space-trip-you-guys-paid-all-this-1611557?ref=andyposner.org)—  
“You paid for this,” he says. You’re welcome, Mr. Bezos.  
He does not reply, but the mosquitoes are feeling  
generous: they tip me for the speed with which  
I feed them. I should go in now; there’s an Air Quality  
Advisory, smoke from fires across the country. Fire  
stalks me. There is not enough water in the seas to douse  
the fear of flames or soothe my skin. I scratch until  
I bleed. Isn’t death for other people? Seneca wrote,  
*Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.*  
Perhaps the Internet erased the need for memory:  
I remember nothing. There is little sweetness now.  
Let's observe a moment of silence for the climate  
we've driven to the brink, like the 30 million buffalo  
we [culled to a few thousand](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/05/the-buffalo-killers/482349/?ref=andyposner.org). But so long as there is  
sperm, and eggs, and energy to procreate,  
all is not lost; we've yet to agree upon a [Kármán line](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/where-is-the-edge-of-space-and-what-is-the-karman-line?ref=andyposner.org)  
to mark the boundary between hope and despair.  
I have so many plans. I could sit on the bloody grass  
all night, scheming beneath a hazy moon—  
If only the mosquitos would leave me to think.