BRIEF NOTE 4 U

I thought I'd drop a line to you

I thought I'd take the time with you

I thought I'd try to find a way to say

It is vital that you act today

I send this message back through time

Much hated ancestor of mine,

For though you sit there claiming it is fine

You'll simply spin a line when it's too late.

And in this swirling carbon-heated world in which I live

Like hot bones trapped within a shroud

We learn as the world burns about us

That smoke is a poor substitute for cloud

And just how much we need to shout out loud

Across the barrier of years

Across those deserts that appeared

A lone man struggles vainly to survive

He is fighting for his life.

He threw a bottle in a sea

That now is dust and he believes

His message was ignored and only he

Remains to represent humanity

Within the hot fog of this atmosphere he breathes

The acids soon destroy

The tissues, fragile flesh the bones

The shoes that bear this figure of a boy     

Who soon lies still,

Dead on the ground

Mark Langlais

2021