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ten poems
121
Catastrophism
We drink elderflower cordial harbouring our woes,
secrets, lost and present loves,
as though they may yet be another solution,
a different outcome to the world’s woes.
Albeit, we have lived too long to deny global warming,
ocean acidity, heat stress or habitat loss,
by the end of our century, flora and fauna loss is expected
to be 20% - 50% of all living species.
Living in our present epoch, it is impossible
not to pity those future humans
who will never know the taste of the elderflower,
the sounds and sights of paradise.
The Sixth Great Extinction is upon us, and we struggle
to find the right words to write it
in our poems, notwithstanding what we have become,
the very essence of our nature – the Walking Dead.