Someone
posted on social media
last week
that climate change
was a hoax.
I had just returned
to the house
after tending to my tomato plants
in the back yard.
Normally, in the middle of November,
my back yard would be covered in snow.
My frost-fragile tomato plants
would be long dead.
My tomato plants,
last week,
were flowering.
They were happily producing
new fruit.
I didn’t waste time
investigating
the climate change denier’s claim.
My gut told me
it was wrong.
But that gut feeling,
that knowing
was based on observation,
on listening and seeing
everything around me.
If I had been stuck
in a house with no windows,
my gut feeling
would have been less reliable.
Yes, listen to your gut
but ensure your gut
has information to work with.
Feed it relevant observations.