This poem is an *IA Writing Competition (creative work category) entry.
Grieving for the Reef
we cannot say we didn’t know
the scientists warned us long ago
but governments ignored the news
and chose to hold quite different views
about a warming world that’s fuelled by coal
and weather that’s veering beyond control
politicians who favour the red or the blue
surely knew they were lies – and couldn’t be true
but they turned a blind eye and accepted the cash
to fund their elections, ignored the backlash
that urged rejecting the proffered largesse
but they didn’t, and now the country’s a mess
all our land and its people are under duress
not only the land, though, a Great Reef is dying
out of sight and most minds, she is barely surviving
once teeming with life, it’s a vast empty space
abandoned by creatures that have all been displaced
what used to be home to fish large and small
and colourful corals – a wonder for all
the cyclones and starfish, pollution and heat
have crumbled her Barrier, it’s bleached with defeat
it’s all about jobs the governments said
but whose jobs we argued when the tourists all fled
because who wants to visit a Reef that’s bereft
of wondrous sea creatures who’ve died or have left
so consider your future when you approve one more hole
it’s a Faustian pact if you sell your own soul
and champion the burning of oil, gas and coal
Anne Layton-Bennett is a freelance journalist and has lived in Tasmania since 1988.
* Full IA Writing Competition details HERE.
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