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Umpteenth heat wave since onset of summer sizzles Delaware Valley today July 16th, 2024

Umpteenth heat wave since onset of summer
sizzles Delaware Valley today July 16th, 2024

Said geographical area composed of counties
located in Southeastern Pennsylvania,
South Jersey, Delaware, and
Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Sweltering temperatures
figuratively grip human zoo
bipedal hominids (yours truly,
an olive - garden variety simian)
seek much sought after shade
under whirled wide webbed yew
offering protection from the sheltering sky,  
which heavenly reflection within 
shining sea witnesses wahoo,
whereat fisherman angling
to encompass vantage point to view

how flora and fauna cook née stew
scorched wildlife 
postpone impossible mission 
to search and rescue
despite bucket brigade lined in a queue
to stanch imminent wildfires
sparked by lightning striking
dry as kindling tinder 
linkedin with El Niño and climate change 
omnipresent phenomenon offered preview

Weather records 
(one for the books) chart mercury
rising hot enough to melt tar,
which indicates global warming
quite evident I fear,
what with mean temperatures
from January – July 2024 (thus far)
noticeably above norm for this time of year
prognosticators foretell forecasts
per this third planet from the star,
which inhabitants upon Mother Earth
burden of responsibility must bear

billions of people wanton pollutants
ratchet up barometric millibar
dialing up greenhouse effect,
which serious scenario scientists fear
correlation from profligate offal ways
traced from freed genie in the jar,
no longer stretch of imagination
affects mankind did sear
since day of reckoning,
whence Prometheus set stage for war
pitting mankind against Gaia
urgent messages we fail to hear.

Dystopian forecast impossible mission to avoid
since doomsday thoughts pervade consciousness
after perusing newsworthy information
globe trotting correspondents riskily employed
imperiling their life and limb to acquire
truthful natural and/or human interest stories
occurring across all four corners of oblate spheroid,
i.e. world wide web,
whereby Earth situated within nebulous void.

I try mine darndest to maintain optimistic aire
all the while gleaning apocalyptic intimations
courtesy human engineered phenomenon
all the more rhyme and reason to beware
Homo sapiens on brink of armageddon,
especially when trustworthy cognoscere
painstakingly document their research
and without lacking hesitation declare

drastic paradigm shift away
from dependence on nuclear
energy and fossil fuels everywhere
else climate change could bitta bing
bitta bang hasten global warming,
where wicked watery wasteland
wreaks bleak soggy frontier
backed by popular demand
majority trumpets grandpoobear
for president, he who donned hair
actually he got bewigged courtesy fake
orange toupee, which got blown away
while he hoisted himself
with his own petard.
 
Imagine if ye will - one immense 
ferociously diametrically, 
and cosmologically phenomena 
opposite that of Polar Vortex 
(perhaps an apropos 
nom de plume 
would be Hades Furnace) 
asphyxiating, clapping, 
and encapsulating thee 
entire oblate spheroid planet.

Judgement day could be similarly 
blazing hot on the saddles, or cold 
as a witch’s tit, which constant reminders 
during Spartan, slated singe shearing, 
stoic upbringing inured us Lutherans 
to bite the figurative bullet 
(which melted like caramel) 
during those scorching, sea-sickening, 
and sunstroke unbearable vaporizing winds.
 
No matter the temperature considerably cooler 
holed deep within man cave
(especially with central air conditioning 
set at seventy degrees and a box and desk fan 
blowing pleasant air), nonetheless 
I still lose out viz zit head by exertion 
as a zero sum game.

Copyright © Matthew Harris

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