A Poem a Day (591): FIRE&WATER

 
FIRE&WATER
 
Colours crisp, oceans of pure,
a coded dream of every element
wiped clean. A world without
a screen. No smoke, no to and fro,
negation of the ‘no go’ zone.
 
This ebb is where it all stops,
everyone folds. Bets are off.

The players have all played,
no one left to throw a die,
the final roll already known.
 
In water everything comes to be seen.

There is no fire without smoke,
but there is stoke, and the fire
has its starter, the fuse, the wood.
 
It was just a word played.

And in the candlelight no questions
were there to be asked.
 
El Nino keeps its promises,
pushing up the ante for 2024,
the 1.5C milestone.
 
Can you feel the heat,
drought, typhoon and monsoon
a-knocking at your door?

This fluctuation, oscillation,
subtle turnings of the tide.
 
To the decision-makers
seated round the highest table,
failing to gather all the data,
don’t shoot the messengers.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, June 8, 2023