The scientist’s cry is no wolf
in lamb’s clothing.
That would make the mistake
to misconceive informing
for warning.

We run away, it’s cheap,
the truth will always fly.
Build another runway.

Words speak louder than any action
while study groups stall
like planes in the air
through negation
of reaction.

“This is all a lot of hot air
that we are talking about”
and they all fell about
laughing hysterically
- with despair.

“No time,”
the dying man said,
armed with the facts but failing to act.
“The fatal attraction,
of politics is to (and here he caught his breath)
do (faintly emphasised)
as little as possible
in the greatest time available.”

He smiled at the sheer beauty
of this lovely last sound bite
and - died.

It is not just a male thing.
“We need to monitor this a little more,” she said.
“People’s jobs are at risk,
change cannot be too brisk.
My expenses must be prepaid”

The indiscipline
of the poet
abandons rhyme
as a total waste of time
like so many things
in this short life.

‘Better late than never’
but the lover finds his bride to be
pregnant by some other
and a malformed baby
wails at the nightmare of global warming.

A soothing suckle
soon yields relief
from slumber’s scare.
Maybe, this is all it could ever be,
- a hellish nightmare.
“This is not my responsibility,”
said the disillusioned lover
and he lashed out with a clenched fist.
“You need help,”
his happiness screamed at him.
“See a psychiatrist.”

So, who tries to care,
as everyone walks idly by?
If you can’t stand the heat - of life
get out of the kitchen.

Take away and throw away
drive away more cars - and eat
- one of life’s great pleasures -

Just remember the brutal fact,
that your cares have no wheels.
They just go round and round and round some more
in your silly little head
that is never the less
the whole world.
Never forget that.

You are not silly.

The sceptics frown
can dismiss the clown as mad.
Air conditioning will cool us down
hot - cool, cool and bad.
“Man, I love that Jude’s ass.”
Do you gedit? - the pure triviality
of Judas with thirty pieces of silver
now selling the earth for less.

Make the deal, go for growth
solar repositioning
on your mobile
will show the progress
while the global position
is extraordinarily
rendered obsolete.

My carbon footprint
seems to stamp down and smash
my tiny hold on this world.
I am
a prisoner of warming
I am
missing in inaction

Have I “um”ed and “er”ed on the side of caution?
as I stumbled in debate
in a life punctuated with dinner parties.
Not really, I like to think
for I will die like men have always done.
Saving the world will not help me
to save myself.

This is a risk worth taking
This is my time to sit on hands.
Why do I have to take the world’s woes on my back?
I’m neutral on all this.
Too difficult.

Your problem is not my problem
and my problem is not your problem.
At the same time,
a problem shared is a problem halved.
A problem halved
can be solved.

I love talking and thinking
about things like this.
The despair for you
is that I can never do enough.

Off to Mars having trashed my home planet.
A boy’s own dream without a care.
That’s one small step for a man
and the stumbling bumbling idiot left on earth
with slurred thoughts churning the mind
can continue the incoherent chat.
But - you have to admit - a giant leap for mankind
is - for what?

I have to think about the small picture
so I cook
my ageing mum
bacon in a non stick pan
- space race spin off -
simple job, requiring no book
trying to be a good son

I can see the first cemetery on the moon
and the carbon traders huge houses on Mars
with cars specially designed to spew out oxygen.
Even there,
man has the fatal ability to destroy
anything that was ever created.

We destroyed all our gods here
and all the heavenly places are so lonely.
They can never have the same atmosphere
without something to doubt
or something to cling to.

All the words ever written will be fossils
that will never be deciphered,
or ever be holy.

But Hope always turns up like a good penny.

There must be one more tomorrow.
If not for me
then I hope for you.

Now it is raining a lot
on this summer day
and I like it when it is not too hot.

©Nigel Bridges 2009

www.nigelbridges.com