New Year End

A simple poem requiring no introduction

New Year End

This year will end like thousands before

Though the weather may be a little warmer

Across the seas there’s another war

Perhaps more foreign or more bloody than the former

More ice from the poles has gone astray

So, the jet stream, next year, may lose its way

Changing some frozen sea to slush

As politicians push to have their say

About which migrant camp they should move or crush

 

We wait to see what next year will bring

After the season that we’ve defined as year-end

When some people decide it’s the moment to sing

And when suddenly their enemy becomes their friend

But now climatic change is far more serious

The science no longer mysterious

Whatever the average person has thought

Of statements that once seemed delirious

Some may listen, next year, to what teachers have taught

 

Next year will be one when we’ll eat less meat

Some will make that costless donation to society

To many it may seem too gargantuan a feat

Others may require an alcoholic’s sobriety

There will be benefits for the so-called ecology

And for the participants’ personal physiology

Hopefully, fewer animals will suffer

From the torturers’ violent pathology

And the hunter’s life will be much tougher

 

Yes, the new year might be genuinely new

When man might believe every moment of truth

No space for deniers their hate to spew

When the cynicism of age will give way to youth

It could be a year of compassion

When less notice is taken of followers of fashion

The planet’s year-end is nigh

Though we should care for it with a passion

Our chance to save it might still pass us by

 

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