They say the ozone might be getting better now
even though last week they were convinced
we were all going to die gagging
of course I don't know who 'they' is

perhaps little bugs that scuttle up a long
ladder leading well past the clouds who scare
the airplanes with their mere presence
who report in an earnest voice how our atmosphere
is doing - should we trust the bugs?

perhaps humped old people who pile one
on top of another like turtles until they reach
the sky and the blind one who lost his hearing
uses his formerly exquisite touch to feel
the ozone of today and report

perhaps monarch butterflies
who go high into the sky searching the fastest currents
could wear a tiny microphone on a wing
and say down to us at earth, "yo, Jasper,
ain't much of an ozone today, out."

       what might those threads be,
       the 'threads in the ozone'?
       perhaps the connections among the
       'highly reactive form of oxygen'
       that we can almost not bear smelling
       yet need for our protection

who put the threads in the ozone

       I am imagining a depressed young woman
       a mother with two kids
       who after putting them down for the night spins
       with more ferocity than Penelope
       (saving herself for herself, not her absent husband)
       spins threads of atoms into ozone
       spins soft oxygen into sharp ozone
       her arms in braces for carpal tunnel
       knowing she will protect us all from the sun by doing this
       yet only doing this not to go crazy

They say the hole in the ozone over the south pole is shrinking
They say the ozone may be healthy

       (walking under a sun torched bright and orange
                 blazing the lack of a face
             the spots are getting us
                        getting us
                    fine