children the size of adults
pester me with questions likehow big is your carbon footprint?
I mean yes
I’m a minor poetnot a major corporation
but I’d still prefer being
taken to task by someone
with a stake in the futureover being taken to court
watching the lawyers
stride in
& out of the stone buildingfrom the shade of this
frankly arrogant tree
resplendent with carbonthere is a whiff of the
entitlement that comes off
a certain kind of person
who when askedstill or sparkling
answers
sparkling
or
something equally
as bougie—is firing off tweets
as bad as burning down
forests?I mean
I get it
some kids don’t want to have to
think about the anthropocenethey want gazelles
jordansthey want supreme
I
on the other handgrew up
climbing treesbarefoot & in rags
swinging off
the fig trees
outside the zooa real Mowgli figure
of inner suburban Adelaideimagining the tree
was my motheror at least the female
tree-character from
Pocahontas(…Grandmother Willow, but I had to IMDb it)
when
you stop to think
for a minute
that’s a strange filmI mean
from a contemporary perspectivethere’s settlement
& the reek of entitlement
not to mention
the extensive
land clearingplus it stars
Mel Gibson
before he got cancelledfor saying those
awful things about
Jewish people—my point being
can the market
really be relied upon
to even all of this out?to absorb our
stupidity
the way trees
absorb our carbon
from the
atmosphere?can a pouch of tobacco
costing $36
really stop someone
from smoking?can e-cigarettes?
can this 36 degree day
lived here
that could be anywhere
somewhere in
the golden age of capitalism?golden
in the way that
a plant turns golden when the sun
had voided it
of its moisture?golden
in the way
we tend
to convince ourselves
things are beautiful
even as they’re
dying
right in front
of our eyes?I’ve been
having better conversations
since accepting this
perennial state of
emergencyreading about the school
protests & watching Greta
Thunberg videos on youtubeaccepting the
solution will not be simple
or easyas unpalatable
as it tastesthis soy latte
is not the solutionwith the newspaper
in front of me
which I’m sure
almost no one my age
or younger
is readingthe editorial suggests
maybe plant a tree?
or get a sodastream?
failing that
their logic would
advocatejust go back to work
as normal?& if you don’t have a job
buy one?
- 115: SPACE
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114: NO THEME 13
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113: INVISIBLE WALLS
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112: TREAT
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110: POP!
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107: LIMINAL
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106: OPEN
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104: KIN
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103: AMBLE
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102: GAME
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101: NO THEME 10
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100: BROWNFACE
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99: SINGAPORE
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97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
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96: NO THEME IX
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95: EARTH
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94: BAYT
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93: PEACH
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92: NO THEME VIII
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89: DOMESTIC
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82: LAND
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57.1: EKPHRASTIC
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57: CONFESSION
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56: EXPLODE
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55: FUTURE MACHINES
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54: NO THEME V
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53.0: THE END
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52.0: TOIL
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49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
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49.0: OBSOLETE
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48.1: CANADA
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45.0: SILENCE
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36.0: ELECTRONICA
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