Heatwave

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber 

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Henry David Thoreau

“The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have the facts and solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change.” – Greta Thunberg

Cherish the natural world, because you’re a part of it and depend on it.” -  Sir David Attenborough

 Now, much of Europe is in the grip of the most sustained heatwave for fifty years. In London and other parts of the UK, temperatures are forecast to peak tomorrow and/ or the next day at around 40 degrees Celsius, which would be the highest ever recorded here.

In the meantime, those of us who can barely stand even moderate heat, await tomorrow with baited breath, given that a significant number of deaths, directly related to the heatwave, have been reported across southern Europe.

Isn’t it about time we all took those scientists who have been studying climate change for years more seriously instead of being in denial or, worse, treating it as none of our immediate concern?

People matter. The planet matters. The past-present-future of all creatures great and small deserves better, surely, than an endgame that has the potential to reduce it to ashes?

So, what can we all do to, each in their own way, to at least limit climate change …better late than too late…?

HEATWAVE

Apollo, raging at humanity
for breaking faith with a natural world
force fed good intentions
meant to improve quality of life
for native communities 
too busy fighting amongst each other
to let serious thought dwell
on the effects of climate change in a future
too distant to really matter

Apollo, messaging humanity
to have a care when poisoning earth, sea
and air with egos driven
by greed and/ or a desire to get one over
his/ her neighbour 
because appearances matter, prove
that human nature
has the capacity to do better than but wait
on some fruitful turn of fate? 

Apollo, in sheer desperation,
commanded by an Earth Mother driven
to breaking such laws of nature
as have been attended to for centuries
in spite of human vagaries
spilling over landscapes of such poetry
as would have seeing-eyes,
hearing-ears, attend the living, one and all,
a kinder future, heart-and soul

Sun, whose risings, settings,
have marked the acts and contemplations
of generations, for better, worse
or such puzzles to be muddled through
as best we can, tomorrows
always waiting in the wings to see what we
will make or break of it,
whether quality-of-life is taskmaster or slave,
healing power or topical heatwave

Copyright R. N. Taber 2022