Strange to find
we’ve walked as though we’re actually blind,
into a mess that only we could make,
spoke charms that no one else but we could fake,
and if,
it hurt the world we didn’t really mind.

There were those
who warned three quarters of a century past of dangers that we posed,
the carbon culture of the western world,
but warnings could not unseat convenience,
and if, grandchildren die because of it,

it’s all because of what we did and now is done.

By now we might have harnessed tides,
found batteries to contain the sun,
directed wind where it is needed most,
proposed a pipeline just for rain,
and if,
our children struggle now as choices close,

it’s what, in dense and startled night, we chose.