The Hedgehog Response Poem by Mary Champion

Pity us then - we naked apes,
victims of Nat'ral Selection -
a system lacking sentience
that never had a long-term plan,
though its effects can long endure.
Under its guidance we evolved
to counter immediate threats -
making do for millennia.

Fight!
If the threat was weaker than us.
It did give us a fighting chance.

Flight!
If we thought we could outrun it,
and sometimes our gamble paid off.

Freeze!
Hoping to remain unnoticed -
unnoticed and undevoured.

But what about Climate Collapse -
the threat currently on offer?
Not quite immediate enough
to take effective action,
it has stalked us just out of sight
until sometime just about now.

Fight?
But we would have to act as one.
A single tribe might manage that,
but billions - all at loggerheads?
An option for an optimist.

Flight?
We know there is no planet B,
at least not one within our reach.
And if there was such a refuge,
there's few of us could raise the fare.
Only oligarchs would escape.
Small space boats would get us nowhere.

Yet, the climate will not notice
as it collapses around us,
so that assumption was correct.
But we will all die anyway.