Kit Kelen #1364 - eternal growth (a fairytale)

1364

eternal growth

(a fairytale)

for and after Greta Thunberg

it’s once upon a time we are

and will be back in the day

is there a highest number?

can’t we just count until everyone’s happy?

ride a graph into the blue

no zero sum

everyone’s rich

or will be soon

so much tide

and my dainty footprint

we sail for Plastic Island

it’s a journey through the guts, that stuff

is there a secret enough school will teach?

and what’s the point of it?

as much as to say, this is our difference

everyone’s a pirate these days

rub borders

that’s what nations do

corn for the circuses

what’s good for me is good for you

who is there to trust?

you’re right of course

but can we care?

talking about my generation

things they do look awful cold

this world has been

but we burn it, bit by bit

it’s warmer

surely we don’t matter?

little countries, little minds

empires will look after all

yes, it’s the cancer mantra,

it’s Mr Creosote

it’s the last supper of George IV

be more and more

go on, you know you want to

blow up like a big balloon

can’t sleep?

keep counting

check messages

how many likes?

though heavier than air, we’ll float

we fly

so many parts per million

dare death

more humans in the air right now

than there were at the end of ice

how many leaders hide under one lie?

under a screen of confected doubt?

what’s science?

who has facts?

someone’s been sleeping in my bed already

so much of the porridge is gone

it’s just a little house in the dream

and wipe your shoes

or you’ll walk in this dirt

this Earth

is it true what you know to be so?

and can we believe in a tree?

I went to the march

and the megaphone

was the one with the longest to live

Greta, how they mock

your sail across

your vanished footprint

(who can afford that?)

they mock your mental health

as if you were imagining

they run the fairytale

and here comes the wolf

(so rare a fellow these days)

here are the circling sharks  

(someone has a soup of their fins)

they won’t listen

all of nature is dumb

in fact there are fewer, fewer creatures

and many of the higher mammals

bury heads in sand

they like the world as it is

nice and smoky

who put the idiots in charge?

we on two legs are always more

we with the big mouths

we are snoring through this big thing –

the great lessening of life

Greta, you’re so much braver than me

and the monsters of the fairytale

greed and evil, selfish, stupid

how do they connect?

we’ve been working on this one for a while

it was a mystery but now I see

they’re partying because there is no tomorrow

they’re making sure of that

who said you can’t take it with you?

of course you can

they won’t go down with the ship

‘let’s sell coal’, my country says

‘dig, shunt, ka-ching…

we’re so good at it’

riddled with superstition

‘too many anxious questions’, they say

turn dinosaurs into smoke and choke  

bundle the kiddies into the oven

will parallel lines ever meet?

I remember my anger at your age

I wouldn’t call it music

but everything you say makes sense

although we don’t deserve you  

please please don’t give up on the world

your rage is needed now