Climate Change Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

May melted August records. Premature,
unreasonable, unseasonable heat,
sear skies, flicked flies dried off the dusty street,
vaporizing streams once sweet and pure
of life acquatic. Floating fish and lure
gasped, oxygen diminished. Rivers fleet,
reluctant trickled from their well-sprung seat,
while water tables turned. No sinecure
toasted farmer boasted, still no cure
was found to seed scarce clouds. Wheat, sugar beet,
rape, tournesol, stemmed, shrivelled incomplete,
fit for reploughing, spread with rare manure.

Famine, furtive first, assertive soon,
slaked thirst, eased hunger, skull s[k]ulked, grim lampoon.

20 September 1991, revised 10 December 2006 & 21 August 2008 see below for previous versi

May melted into June. Though premature
this might appear, unseasonable heat
had dried the flies from off the dusty street
and emptied once-proud rivers, sweet and pure,
of life marine, left floating, fish and lure
as oxygen diminished. Streams, once fleet,
reluctant trickled from their well-sprung seat,
while water levels dropped. No sinecure
the farmer now possessed, and still no cure
was found to seed the clouds. The sugar beet
and golden tournesol stood shrivelled, wheat
fit for reploughing, spread with scarce manure.

Famine, furtive first, assertive soon,
eased its hunger, thirst slaked, grim lampoon

Drought

Dewdrops on hedgerows once we knew,
Rainbows bridging the sky,
Over our heads dark storm clouds grew,
Ugly, we thought, - but why?
Grieving for failed crops we view
Here fields that once grew spry,
Too arid, unproductive too,
Dust ridden waste, bone dry.
Rose sere upon the stem, no clue
Of moisture meets the eye,
Unless the tears that filter through
Good news to bad reply.
Heat comes to roost-roast, all's askew,
Turns wild oats sown awry.

11 August 1990 revised 21 August 2008