longest recorded polar bear swim
426 miles
I am standing on shore,
horrified and grieving,
watching this big old
beautiful planet
going down.
Humans fight fires and floods,
but don't stop pumping carbon
into the sky, or fracking the earth.
Corporate greed takes more and more,
putting nothing back,
nor cleaning up their act.
We use dirty energy,
when a switch to clean energy
would create jobs
and be win/win.
The icebergs melt,
polar bears are drowning,
and what do we do?
Send cruise ships up,
crowing that now the ice is melting,
the north is now accessible
for tourism.
Yippee.
It is like playing violins
while the Titanic slowly sinks,
brave, perhaps,
but shouldn't we be doing more
than waving goodbye
to everything we love
from shore?
for Kerry's prompt at Real Toads: shipwrecks Sigh.
This is heart-breaking, and yet so apt in describing the consumer-driven lifestyle which has taken over the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kerry. Then there are those who say "what problem?"
ReplyDeleteDrives me crazy. Great poem. k.
ReplyDeleteI find playing the violin while going down is a very apt image for what we do... and most of what we do is without any proper purpose... except unwillingness to change even a little.
ReplyDeleteMoving poem, ending with the kind of rhetorical question that wrenches your guts out!
ReplyDeleteClearly stated - and too true. The anguish is palpable.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, we definitely should be doing more.
ReplyDeleteSend cruise ships up... party party until the wine is gone and then act surprised... Gotta love human ability to not see what is right before us...
ReplyDeleteWas just having this discussion last night, wondering how it's possible for any not to see the effects of human folly on the environment -- thank you for a powerful poem. I'm sad that the violin continue to play while we continue sinking our ship....(though, arguably, the violins on the Titanic meant much to those in their final moments..) How can we preserve what's no longer there? is the question I'm left with...
ReplyDelete