IN TANDEM
supplied the twin illustrations
ONE OR THE OTHER
In heat or chill our world will end;
Some day, we know not when.
We only know that it will die.
It will be all over then.
We puny little human things
Will burn or we will freeze;
The deserts will take-over,
Or else the icy seas.
The final leaves that drift on down
Will be brown and scorched and charred,
Or else they will be shards of ice,
Brittle and blue and hard.
By red or white we'll be consumed,
As though we have never been,
So let us cherish what we have,
Rejoicing in the green.
*
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MONUMENT TO FOLLY.
The statue of a weeping woman,
Clutching the earth,
Part of it,
Overgrown by it.
A monument supine.
*
Monuments stand.
They tower,
They impose,
They are larger than life.
They spread wings,
Raise hooves,
Express power, triumph and glory.
Even in death.
*
This monument has lost the will to stand.
She is not triumphant.
She is cowed,
She is broken-hearted,
She is laid low
By her enemies.
Us.
*
For this is Mother Nature.
We have brought her to this.
*
1 comment:
Unusually sombre thoughts from you in both poems. Mankind is destroying the world - most of us acknowledge this but do not change our ways significantly.
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