Day 08 – consequences + moving

*****

Climate Change is going to affect different parts of the world slightly differently (mostly the same broad brush strokes, but the detail will vary from place to place). For several years I’ve been collecting examples of things that will in all probability be affected right here in Oz (itself a wildly diverse ecosystem/area) under the working titles of — ecosystems : species : food and farming : water : coastal erosion : health : damage to homes & property : coral bleaching : miscellaneous.

The poem is a poetic attempt at breaking down all the fun things we’ve got to look forward to. I’m sharing just the Species section of the poem. (Not doubt this first draft will have new consequences added to it, as I research further. It’s been ever growing for the past 4 years, don’t see it changing now.)

*****

So many consequences …

ii. species

One in six : faces ex:tinc:tion risk 

To survive
   plants : animals : & birds alike
   must  :  move  :  adapt or         : die 

But climate change : is happening : so fast
it’s often im:possible : for species to adapt 
         :  swiftly                         enough  : 
to evolve : with their ever-changing : environments : 
with changing seasons  :  with timings 
in the rest of the web :  altered :   delayed : 
enhanced :    shunted :    days, even weeks 
                                                    :  out of whack 

And even  :  if they could  :  move   :   swiftly enough 
the sheer : volume of human-driven  :  habitat destruction
makes moving  :  moot  ;  kinda hard to move  :  when  :  there’s no place left

*****

Day 08 – TIL about the pachyderms outside the room

Bill’s Moving Tales

1. Supposedly the average person (Bill) moves residences 11.7 times in their lives
2. Allegedly it is the 3rd most stressful event in Bill’s life (behind death & divorce)
3. Apparently 55% of Bill’s moves happen in the summer
4. Purportedly Bill needs around 60 cardboard boxes to move all their stuff
4b. Reputedly 60 cardboard boxes is equivalent to around 6,500 pounds — or as part of the penchant for Americans using anything except the metric system to describe things — the size of a smallish-sized elephant

5. All I know is, when the truck with the shipping container filled to the brim with most of my books tried, it couldn’t make it up the gentle slope of Gully Hill & had to go the long way round (not enough torque or cylinder size or something — definitely *not* too. many. books).

Day 20 – pity party (& binge bash)

20 mudwallow_buffalo.jpg

This was actually begun as a poem for someone else … & took a wrong turn along the way, which improved it immeasurably.

*****

wallows

was happily wallowing, wallowing;
in my heart of broken glass pain;
my sad song that never ends;
my woe-is-me tale of eternal misery;
with my wounded soul lying in a cave;
like a hippo in mud;
like the proverbial pig;
like the …
                  when i got to wondering
what other creatures like a good wallow.
a quick interwebbing told me
   elephants & elephant seals
     warthogs & rhinoceroses
        tapirs & bison all do; some deer too.

accidentally learning along the way,
it’s a comfort behaviour, free sunscreen,
insect repellent, wet brush to enhance
moulting & remove parasites; as well as
aids social cohesion & play in young animals.

by which, i’d forgotten my mopery
(though i was a good deal    itchier)


BONUS POEM: April 20, 2018

After a scare with their prepaid Skip the Line tickets I finally saw my mother (Old Ma Jones) & my niece inside, when I thought, WTH I may as join the end of the queue & see how long it actually takes. Seemed a shame to be so close & not even try.

*****


shadowvale

I did not leave
myself all day
lost in the space
I’m always lost in
— from here
I glimpse
things stranger
than I have known
things I could
once have been
were it not
for the shadows
in the vale

20b hyde park.jpg