The World Around US

Awaking blithe each morning,

with eyes upon the World,

I wonder, are we mourning

with ebon flags unfurled -

or are they but a warning,

some draped like snakes and curled,

stark stars and stripes adorning,

sent from the netherworld.

 

I wander through the garden

with nothing on my mind

and say 'I beg your pardon'

alarmed at what I find

as winds begin to harden

and sounds begin to grind.

 

Confused, I watch my neighbours,

they're wide-eyed, unafraid

to halt all useful labours

and join the death brigade;

the ritters rattle sabres,

the frail and fragile fade,

morticians tap on tabors

 while potentates parade.

 

The military blesses

 (in tunics somewhat browned)

its crimson-stained successes,

hell bent and heaven bound;

such scenes don't dare distress us:

a bloody battleground,

dissevered heads with tresses

and arms and legs abound;

the fourth estate suppresses

that bodies have been found

(collateral excesses

 discarded in a mound).

 

Society regresses,

now living by the sword,

with torture and its stresses

upon a waterboard;

a captive kid confesses,

his innocence ignored -

fallacious facts and guesses,

the guts of justice gored!

 

With canting vindication

a top brass bully brags

(pale pearls of perspiration

and swollen tongue that gags)

of third world  subjugation

for gelt and oily swags,

of human rights' castration...

and on and on it drags.

 

The manifold migration

of refugees in rags

while searching for salvation

soon finds compassion lags;

uprooted populations

are fleeing from their flags

else dying of starvation

as piercing hunger nags.

 

Atomic timepiece ticking

until the Reaper comes

when Geiger counters clicking

drown out the droning drums;

wild trump card's politicking

with little hands, all thumbs,

and sends the Mad Dog siccing -

insane! my soul succumbs...

 

Cast out for not conforming,

I wander day by day

and find the earth deforming

as nature wastes away,

with bees no longer swarming

deceased in poison spray,

and ocean depths transforming

with plastic underlay.

 

With CO2 performing

the climate's led astray,

the atmosphere's been warming

the grass now ashen gray,

eternal tempest's storming

while permafrosts decay,

and ozone holes are forming

in deadly disarray.

 

The people profiteering

descend a slip'ry slope

destroying, never fearing                       

of running out of rope;

instead they're cheer'fly cheering

that wealth's our only hope.

 

Now Armageddon's nearing,

it's doubtful that we'll cope

for Mother Nature's jeering,

she's mapped our horoscope:

we'll soon be disappearing...

like whale and antelope.

 

            Epitaph

The storms around me rumble,

my back's against the wall,

I take a step and stumble

but find no place to fall,

my knees begin to crumble

but I refuse to crawl,

nobody hears me mumble,

for no one's there at all.