children the size of adults

    pester me with questions like
        how big is your carbon footprint?
I mean    yes

                            I’m a minor poet
               not a major corporation
    but I’d still prefer being

               taken to task by someone

       with a stake in the future
  over being taken to court
   watching the lawyers

stride in

 & out of the stone building
                              from the shade of this

                            frankly arrogant tree

                                 resplendent with carbon
               there is a whiff of the

                  entitlement that comes off

                a certain kind of person

                 who when asked
                still 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 anthropocene
they want gazelles

                                             jordans
               they want supreme
I

   on the other hand 		
grew up

               climbing trees
   barefoot & in rags

swinging off

   the fig trees

outside the zoo
                              a real Mowgli figure

                    of inner suburban Adelaide
imagining the tree

    was my mother
                              or 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 film
I mean

                  from a contemporary perspective 
         there’s settlement

   & the reek of entitlement

               not to mention

                              the extensive

                                                  land clearing
   plus       it stars
               Mel Gibson

                                             before he got cancelled
                                   for 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

                                               emergency
               reading about the school

                protests & watching Greta

        Thunberg videos on youtube
  accepting the

solution will not be simple

  or easy 
                                                   as unpalatable

                                                    as it tastes
                              this soy latte

                     is not the solution
with the newspaper

   in front of me

                                               which I’m sure

                                                    almost no one my age

                                             or younger

                                       is reading 
  the editorial suggests
               maybe plant a tree?
                              or get a sodastream?
                   failing that

               their logic would

                              advocate 
   just go back to work

               as normal?
                                             & if you don’t have a job
               buy one?