Spin

An Ecological Sonnet

by Alex Zimmerman / March 31st, 2019

Sacred mother, connecting all that lives,
You gave us minds, you gave us physics clear,
You leave no doubt what each of us must give,
But there are plenty who refuse to hear,
Who somehow imagine that they’re immune,
From karma’s reckoning or consequence.
Our leaders say, we’ll action it real soon.
One percent swears; world can’t bear that expense,
Meaning, of course, it curbs their privilege.
There’s none so blind as those who will not see,
That they’re hurling themselves over the edge.
Swept up in their foul wake are you and me.
So our leaders, they spin; the world, it burns,
Who should lead just spin, meanwhile the world burns.

Alex was, until retiring recently, an engineering technologist and executive by trade, and he owned a consulting practice focused on operationalizing sustainability in the buildings industry. Since then, he designed and built a small boat, rowed and sailed the Inside Passage with it, has published a book about his 25+ years of kayaking and sail and oar boating on British Columbia’s coast (called “Becoming Coastal”) and occasionally writes poetry. Read other articles by Alex.

This article was posted on Sunday, March 31st, 2019 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.