KING COAL
Tens, dozens, lines of ships,
Off the coast of New South Wales.
Ships full of coal.
Coal, the backbone of our region:
The Hunter Valley.
Making us rich:
Our inheritance.
Will I cheerfully forego the benefits
When the ships
No longer call?
Will I gladly be less warm,
Less pampered, less well-fed?
Will I be happy
When my grandsons inherit a life
Less comfortable and cushioned than mine?
No!
*
Tens, dozens, lines of ships
Bound for the wider world.
Ships full of coal.
Will I be cheerful
When their cargoes pollute
Someone else's skies?
Will I shrug my shoulders
When their Greenhouse Gases
Clog someone else's lungs?
Will I be happy
When my grandsons can no longer enjoy
The Great Barrier Reef?
No!
So I merely drift.........
Fiddling while Rome burns.
15 comments:
Great poem. I also particularly like the music. Thank you for visiting my blog and giving me the link to yours. We grandparents need to stick together! :-)
Hi Brenda, I usually have my speakers turned off but was ripping some music for my MP3 player and decided to blog hop a bit. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Glen Miller coming out of my speakers ! It took me awhile to figure out how he got there ! lol. Yes, I think today's children will live probably live in a very different world when they grow up. They already can't go outside without someone watching them - I used to leave the house in the morning and come home for dinner - not children today. I like your other blog Plus also !
It does seem that the world that we are leaving to our grandchildren's generation will not be the same as we had.
Please come over to my blog today and read the tribute that I have written for you.
Bear((( )))
You aren't fiddling Brenda...
You've ignited that coal and minds... and make people think.
Lovely poem.
Great write! This is certainly one to make you think.
a very thought provoking poem to read, and re-read, and to share. thank you for sharing your writing with us.
thanks for the poem, very inspiring!
Amiko
beautiful and thoughtful poem...
I am hoping my guy and others of his generation will take better care!
Coming from "koal" country in PA, I know exactly how dirty and ugly it can be. My dad had a few friends who had "black lung" from working in the mines...
great poem!!!
Thought-provoking poem. Thanks!
=)
Well done, Rinkly. We do need to find other and better solutions for our energy glut, don't we?!
Very nice poem. This was a great post on the theme today.
Wow! Now that's a poem to make you think! I guess I'll just keep doing my little part, recycling, etc.
I used to be married to a coal miner.
For serious.
Although it's how we made our living back then I was always disturbed by it.
My first husband won awards for reclamation and that gave me a little solace knowing that the ground was put back, but still.
Thanks for an inKredible link to the letter 'K'.
A+
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