I finally realise
(I can be very slow) –
of course they are killing the children!
It’s a genocide (we all know that)
so of course they are ending
the next generation
before it starts.
Before it gets a grip.
They are bombing the hospitals,
destroying maternity wards –
the new babies, the mothers
about to give birth.
I thought they were – blindly – creating
a new generation of terrorists (war
begets war). But no,
not so blind after all.
They are busy eradicating
the whole future
of a whole people.
Contemplating this,
seeing more clearly
than I ever allowed myself:
I too have lost my breath.
Words have not been enough.
Decades of words,
a century of words
failed to save the earth
from effects of human greed.
How can I hope that words
might prevent the slaughter of children?
But words are all I have …
I contemplate changing 'they' to 'we'. Have we not been complicit?
Note:
In 1896, a seminal paper by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius first predicted that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could substantially alter the surface temperature through the greenhouse effect.