At the beginning of October the devolved Scottish Government said no to fracking. At last some common sense. The decision was made after a four month public consultation which received over 60,000 responses. Of these public responses approximately 99% were opposed to fracking. My home is within half a mile of a proposed fracking site.
This good news was a small but welcome ray of sunshine amid the constant deluge of environmental doom and gloom. Hurricanes, a water shortage in Crimea, toxic fogs, mud slides, floods ….. Just a few days ago there was another chemical leak at Sellafield in Cumbria, England, a nuclear reactor site that is now being decommissioned that has a dark history. And of course there was the big news story in the summer about Donald Trump’s moronic decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.
So today I think it fitting to post my darkly humorous, futuristic poem, ‘Those We Miss’ which is based on the traditional folk song, English Country Garden.
THOSE WE MISS
How many dainty flowers harden
in your English country garden?
Forget fritillaries and hollyhocks,
they’ll rot away in the muck.
Bushy beard, broom sedge and swamp rose,
bull rush, cattail, marsh marigold,
bog bean, lizard’s tail and bone-set,
panic grass, blue flag, turtle-head.
These all thrive on the edge.
Floating leaf mud plantain,
milkweed, smartweed, water mermaid,
duck potato are not afraid
of black eyed Susan and bittersweet
in your English country garden.
How many creatures ramble
in your English country garden?
Forget the sparrows and the wrens,
they’ll not be back again.
Dragon fly, wood tick and mosquito,
crayfish, coypu, copepod, zooplankton,
snapping turtle, pond-skater and toad.
Sand-hill crane and great blue heron,
red winged blackbird, common egret,
these are birds you’ll not forget.
No camomile lawns, in southern parts
caiman crocodiles with gaping yawns
and copperhead snakes entertain
in your English country garden.
How many toxic raindrops tumble
in your English country garden?
Forget the dancing in the rain
for you’ll never be the same.
Boron, benzene, aluminium,
mercury, arsenic, titanium,
barium, formaldehyde, cyanide,
cadmium and many more beside.
Noughts and crosses played by planes
spray the skies with chemtrails,
vaping clouds. Weather engineering
taints your skin, heart, brain and breathing.
Blood rain, black rain, hard rains darken.
Forget English country garden.
The Purple Hermit 