Even More Poems

Climate Blues

O grave, where is thy victory?*
So many people have died
Drowned
Burnt
Heat struck
All massacred by hot weather
Yet still the energy fable lingers
Still fruitful shares make profit from coal
Still fossil gas is highly cost-effective
Still cars burn the air profitably
Still forests are felled by flourishing fellers
Still fools spend endlessly on more than they need
Ah yes
The climate crisis stays still financially sound
The corporate deceivers remain powerful
And their political servants
Stay lucratively obedient
So global warming
Remains in their economic manuscripts
As a record of success
O when, when, when
When will they ever learn?**
Why must truth be crucified by what you earn?
No more please you profiteers
Give rise no longer to tragic tears
Cast aside your mercenary gain
And let the sun have a genial refrain

*Corinthians 15: 56

** All hail to Pete Seeger 1955.

Gone Fission

Atomic power

What is the price?
Asks the informed guru
And what then will be lost
By the radio active crew
Cunningly not speaking of cost?
One problem will be waste
But order will be lost much faster
If you are governed by haste
So move slowly on past Chernobyl’s disaster
You cunning, deficient schemer
Or the truth of The China Syndrome*
Or the tragedy of Fukushima
Make sure all roads lead not to that Rome
You say the wind doesn’t always blow
And the sun doesn’t always shine
But sun and wind all true scientists know
Have potential that is divine
You can harvest their power and store it
In the vastness of our land
But atomic investors deplore it
Turning fertile soil into sand
And so the mythology lingers
Lauding atoms as an investment
But that sage has sullied fingers
Making nature a tragic divestment
So hear this all you atomic supporters
Your folly I cannot pardon
For your news you may choose the reporters
If you’ll bury the waste in your garden

*The China syndrome is a 1979 American film about a nuclear meltdown.

A Quest For Justice

I was alive
When Hitler killed Jews
As I learned of this crime I raged
And pitied the victims with grief in my soul
All my life since I’ve respected that people
But today I have a problem
I closely observe the cursèd land of Gaza
A state being ravaged without pity
With deaths at every age in thousands
Total destruction that I have not seen before ever
Present day bombs
Are more effective than those of past times
Now who is guilty here?
The broad expanse of Jewish people
Incur no blame from me
No wrath but willing compassion still
But there is another point of view
The present government of Israel incurs my wrath
A condemnation
That echoes around my brain
There can be no cause to justify the destruction
The inhumanity of a land in ruins
The merciless murder of innocents
Revealed so clearly in newscasts
Antisemitism has no relevance here
As I know that many citizens of Israel
Share criticism of their regime’s deeds
To them I offer my compassion
A kind of respect that fills me with love not hate
As I long for mercy now for Gaza

Troubled Souls

Send me your human flotsam
Troubled souls
Victims of hostility
Threatened
By tyranny or bigotry
Or both
Dwellers in a homeland
Now violently hostile and insecure
Where law is the plaything of autocracy
Where democracy is but a vanished dream
Where the media has but one approved voice
Where dissenters disappear mysteriously
Where peace of mind is crushed by political wrath
So call them forth now
Come to me
You poor damaged souls
You prey of monsters of state
You victims of violent rule
You angels cast into Hell
You butterflies in a tempest
I am waiting
Don’t be afraid
On your toes now
Freedom calls if you have the courage to act
Keep trying
Find a way, any way
Yes that boat will do if there is nothing else
Come now be brave
Reach out to Australia
To be freed from your star-crossed land
And placed in indefinite detention

Reality

Just listen to them
Polluting the air
With their ineptitude
It’s like some kind of winter smog
Hearken to their language
Our way of life
What our nation stands for
Few taxes
Free markets
Small government
All budgets balanced
Described by a Press monopoly
For the good of the nation
All so misleading
This unworldly vision based on pretence
So open your eyes
You rulers of our lives
Look around you
And analyse the reality

Is education extortionate?
Is death premature?
Are teenagers on drugs?
Is domestic violence prevalent?
Are there ready cures for neurosis?
Does poverty ruin health and well-being?
Is medical research funded to the best degree?
Bad answers demand action

So
Wake up then you leaders
Tax the rich to save the poor
End the evil of market manipulation
Let the people not corporations rule the nation
Don’t neglect the needy to balance the budget
Fund hospitals and sanctuaries not weapons
Promote social health instead of wealth
Then have a truthful fourth estate
Play the music we dance to on the Elysian Fields

royciebaby