The haggling goes on unabated.
Their posturing, a pain in the neck.
They fooling us with their chinwag
As they discuss our common future.
Are we being pointlessly towed
From Kyoto to Copenhagen
To witness the power struggle
Between the rich and the poor?
“Warmth in winter,
Wintry in summer,
Who questions this birthright?”
“Meat for the masses
Grain for the cattle,
Hungry? Curse history!”
“Don’t develop so fast-
You have no right to do that!
We’ll give you what’s left,
Have you no patience?”
“Pay for your sins!”
“Will 400 do?
Cut the emissions!
And then, we will pay you 10!”
“Sacrifice! Be Austere!
What goes up has to come down,
That is Mother Nature’s secret
Well exploited for progress.”
“Out of the way, old nations
Your creaking knees no match
To the surging youth of the young.
Make way, feign thence abnegator.”
2012 is true; I feel it in my bones,
The sizzling and the heaving,
The melting and the drowning,
Our future orchestrated by us.
Frightening, unnerving, rebarbative
I am ready, I have changed to CFL
I eat less, burn less, gone organic.
Anyway! Death doesn’t scare me
Since it has no future.
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
