2019
1.
The year I changed
my mind, priorities, concerns –
2019 was the year
I woke up to the end of the world
as we know it.
The future of human civilisation,
the future of animal life,
the future of vegetables.
All’s lost,
all’s on its way out.
Earth smiles knowingly:
“off you go, you upstarts,
I’m tired of your foibles,
I recall the good old days,
when you lived on plains,
in villages,
hand to mouth.
Even your first fire was fuel.
Goodbye to ugly habits.
I love being Earth,
the future is bright
half the time,
The stars will illuminate
the way to dusty death.
2.
The year I turned a corner
and bumped into my shadow
going the other way,
contradicting
the art of resurrecting.
Maturing.
This has been the year I matured
into the light of a river flowing
with the voice of bones
creaking and cracking,
consternating.
There was gin in the bottle
crying out for a taste,
neat,
at room temperature,
as the ice melted,
as Greenland peeled back her corset,
and the emperor penguins cried their way
towards their end.
3.
The year I stood up straight
in storms, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, famines, earthquakes, floods, lightning, thunder, droughts, volcanoes, collisions, crashes, massacres.
I’m living among refugees –
the people of Monasterevin, Carrickmacross, Oughterard, Moville, Rooskey, Ballinamore, Borrisokane …
