Pure Oxygen - Dec 20 2021`

 

Pure Oxygen

Dec 20 2021

Like the weather these days.

Mercurial.

Whipsawed

from deep freeze to thaw, overnight.

Fierce winds, shifting radically,

and the once-in-a-century rain

that came twice this year,

bracketing a drought

like a Biblical plague.

Her temperament

was equally ballistic

as hard to predict.

Yet it was just this fierceness

I found so lovable

despite all the trouble she caused;

her authentic

unfiltered

impassioned self.

The attraction, perhaps, of opposites;

a phlegmatic man

who only takes action

when considered well,

and a force of nature

who either hurricanes through life

or is a high summer day,

heat lingering on

like a warm embrace

all night long.

So if climate change

means more extreme weather

we're well used to that.

Even though she's not nearly as gradual,

and can't easily be explained

by earthly science.

Because she's more exoplanet

than terrestrial,

with a pure oxygen atmosphere

on a wobbly path

around a waning star.

A volatile gas

that will incinerate

with the slightest spark,

but you still want to breath in all the way

and feel supercharged

on fire.

Storm clouds

on the horizon

and it's close to dusk;

who knows

what more she'll get up to

after dark.

The weather today went through just such a dramatic shift. I've written a lot of weather poems – looking out the window is a great source of found poems – but I think this is a fresh take: using my observations metaphorically; making the poem more personal, less descriptive and detached. Although I'm not thinking of a particular person. This is more a synthesis, or archetype (caricature?!!)

Clearly, the mercurial weather we've had, and that is occurring all over the world, is a direct result of climate change. Which I take extremely seriously, and so hope haven't used it here in too it in too frivolous a way.

We think of oxygen as life-giving and precious. Actually, it's highly reactive and toxic! It certainly was when the only life on earth was anaerobic, and then plants discovered photosynthesis and did them in with it. This is the element that generates those free radicals that are supposed to be so damaging to living tissue. And this is why premature newborns given too much oxygen can develop blindness and permanent lung damage. And, of course a pure oxygen fire is fierce and all consuming. So not so benign, after all.