A Hot Day in July - July 27 2022

 

A Hot Day in July

July 27 2022

Change happens slowly

then all at once.

At first a trickle,

then the pipe bursts.

If only you'd notice

those telltale drips;

but life goes on

as it’s always done

and you take for granted it will.

Until, bewildered

you find yourself there,

underwater

struggling for air

and swimming for your life.

Events cascade.

Tipping points topple.

People live for today.

The path of least resistance

that's easiest to take.

After all, it may be hot outside,

but it's cool in here

there's still snow in winter

and what do you expect of July?

If only denial worked.

Head in the sand, they say.

But ostriches don't lie low,

and no lemming

has ever

stampeded over the edge.

The myths we cherish,

truths left unsaid.

The regrets

there's no point tormenting,

I-told-you-sos

that won't do any good.

Nesting ostriches were observed rearranging their eggs, which they lay in sand. No reason for a fast, strong, high endurance animal to use concealment as a defence.

And the image of lemmings plunging off cliffs was staged for a 1958 Disney nature film. They were probably trying to dramatize the high death rates in mass migration years when lemming populations outgrow the food supply, part of of the usual boom and bust cycle of nature. Clearly, Disney should have stuck with cartoons!

The poem, of course, is about climate change. I held back mightily. Because I so wanted to ventilate my despair. As well as my anger at the human greed, obstructionism, cynical denial, utter ignorance, wilful blindness, mindless tribalism, and impediments to collective action that have all led to us being so badly unprepared for the necessary transition from fossil fuels, which should and could have happened long ago: after all, we've known the physics of atmospheric carbon for well over a century, and have had the hard evidence for decades. Now, between positive feedback loops and human truculence, it's probably too late.