Did you never think to watch the news
As you sat there on your inflatable chair
In front of the diving-helmet TV?
Your impending doom was on air.
They talked of what had happened,
How things would get worse –
The rising temperatures and tides
And coral-bleaching, devastating to
The reef and its endemic life.
Did you think you had enough going on
And flip the channel for some light-relief
Ignore the bio-erosion reports which warned
Of widescale sponge deaths
Unless more was done
To halt the damage to the place which you call home?
Head in the (literal) sand or ignorance?
Or are your madcap antics a response to this,
A situation which cannot be saved?
For soon it will be much too late
to (literally) turn back the tide
The pineapple will be a useless place to hide
The reef will wither, you will be forgot
And it will make no difference
Whether you wore pants or not.
Nicki Blake / @strawberrythief is an emerging poet and writer of short fiction from Perth, Western Australia. She has been published online and in print. Nicki will neither confirm nor deny that her creativity is strongly influenced by red wine.