Even the Prophets Are Human

O blessed Lovelock, son of Gaia

even with all your science and vocabulary

you failed to wake us up until it was too late.

Global warming is irreversible and all we can do

is wait for the terrible thing to happen

the desertification of Europe, the sinking of London

the famine, the epidemic and the mass migration

of hope.

What can we do if there is nothing we can do

if earth’s reflective organ is too vain

if our power turned too much to outward aggression

punishes the inward nurture of the most delicate

new green shoots emerging above the soil?

Now we shall weep and weep as those great

sky penetrating towers fall

and we perish under their mute walls.

Such a prophecy is not new

there have been others who knew

by the way the warriors went to battle

thrusting their swords into Gaia’s children

that we would not last long

yet we believed linear logic was our sword

of immortality.

And since you are our most recent prophet

why don’t we blame you for not doing

what never worked anyway

—shaking us out of our delusions.

(from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)