Greenhouse Effect Poem by Max Dahlquist

Your brother was a six-year old saboteur


skulking under a mattress
with a book of matches
a terminal curiosity
and an impish sort of grin
that brought panic to the eyes
of insurance agents


your house filled up with smoke


we sat and joked about the way
it dried our eyes to raisins
and because we couldn't laugh
we choked, smiling through toxic fumes
amused to death with no concerns
to weigh on our heads

our heads side-by-side
with one's fingers in the other's hair
until the heat had its way and there was none
just two puffs of carbon dioxide
drifting into the atmosphere
free and uninhibited
perfectly willing to join our new friends
in blanketing the planet
and bringing the seas to boiling
proud citizens
in the democratic republic
of the greenhouse effect