'Once we would have celebrated such a day...' Photo: NASA.
Earth Day 22/04/19
'Earth Day 22/04/19' by Christopher Sleeman
Once we would have celebrated such a day.
Now a poem would likelier be elegy than eclogue,
Or, in music, requiem replace the anthem’s part.
Nor can we with any confidence pray
Earth rest in peace or light perpetual,
While humanity remains to rend its heart.
Though the ‘green blade riseth’ as in the Easter hymn,
And this season still stands steeped in vital signs,
The voice of the turtle is rarely heard
In a sunlit Sussex, blessed but not immune
To the crumbling of systems that should sustain
The homeostasis of our home;
The planet, which entrepreneurs press to escape
In flights of fancy into space.
I doubt for most the science proves swift enough
To outpace the uneven race
Into the oblivion we seem intent upon.
Hell bent on the here and now
The mighty do not relent
From reinforcing the silos of their power,
Heedless of the approach of our last hour.
