Eternal Apocalypse
I’ve managed to escape a coming ice age;
A mammoth hasn’t tossed me to my death.
I’ve dodged the planet’s ozone-waning end-stage;
Our green and pleasant land’s still drawing breath.
The polar bears are plentiful and healthy.
The ocean hasn’t swallowed coastal homes
Of cunning cons who’ve grown yacht-owning wealthy
By dishing fishy gloom—it pays to moan.
I’ve lived beyond Cassandra’s worst predictions;
Each year there’s one more fear for seers to stoke.
I’m starting to believe experts’ convictions
Are punchlines to a sick, archaic joke.
Now eons on from each horrific warning,
Unless we all go vegan Gaia fries.
Ingest a burger and we’ll all be mourning—
Our critter-littered Eden curls and dies.
Wild tempests, torrid seas and horrid weather
Will shake our ecosystem to the core,
Then wreck our offspring’s wondrous world forever—
It’s etched in Chicken Little’s book of lore.
I’ve lived beyond the forecasts of extinction,
But now I fear the Reaper’s grimmest knock.
The irony of false prognostication
Is ducking doom to croak from years of shock.
Love in the Time of Coronavirus
Go don your mask and don’t ask for a kiss;
To lock our lips is wickedly remiss.
The heat of skin on skin could leave us sick;
We’d better make our hot encounter quick.
And if a teasing tongue is your intention.
I must point out that all the experts mention
Such friskiness will pose a hairy risk.
Before our lustfulness ensures you whisk
Me off my feet and straight upstairs to bed,
Perhaps we’ll get the Scrabble out instead.
First published in Light Poetry Magazine
Susan Jarvis Bryant is a church secretary and poet whose homeland is Kent, England. She is now an American citizen living on the coastal plains of Texas. Susan has poetry published in the UK webzine, Lighten Up On Line, The Daily Mail, and Openings (anthologies of poems by Open University Poets).
Ha! I love Love in the Time of Corona Virus’ wit and wordplay, bawdy yet not over the top. (The play on “…in the time of cholera” did not go unnoticed either.)
The first parallels my thoughts too. Turns out “settled science” isn’t. And it’s funny what consensus you can arrive at when you berate, fire, and stigmatize scientist’s who question… …wait, I thought that was a scientist’s life, to question…
Daniel, I love your point on the utterly insidious term; “settled science” – an oxymoron, if ever I heard one. How dreadful that so many have been hoodwinked by such an insidious term… if only they knew the sinister idea behind the term, those making a fortune in the name of “settled science” would be exposed for the charlatans they are. Thank you for your astute comments.
Great job, Susan! My favorite parts of “Eternal Apocalypse” are the phrase “critter-littered Eden” and the line about Chicken Little.
Thank you very much for your lovely comment, Cynthia. I was sniggering as I wrote “critter-littered Eden”… no comedian should laugh at their own jokes, and I believe no poet should have as much fun as I do… though, I’m not complaining. Thank you for making me recognize I never suffer for my art.
Susan, I love these two. The first reminded me of the dire prognostication of the Victorians that we would all be waist deep in horse manure by now, and the second had a punchline to die for.
Brilliant as ever, thank you.
Thank you very much, Jeff. How have we not moved on from the fearmongering of the Victorians? Why do people still believe we are soon to be waist deep in the latest dread? Jeff, please tell me the British people haven’t bought into this latest pile of horse manure? I have faith in the stalwart common sense of my kin… please don’t spoil my day. 😉
Susan, over here we have “Extinction Rebellion.” These guys super-glue themselves to Jumbo Jets and make out that their offspring will perish in the flames of Armageddon before puberty. So sorry to spoil your day, but on the plus side, just off to buy a Scrabble set for later on this evening. Our sadly-missed Victoria Wood would have loved that line.
Jeff, I have heard of Extinction Rebellion and how they’ve shut down cities with their “cause”. It seems we have the same ridiculous problem the Western world over, sadly.
I grew up with the glorious humour and talent of Victoria Wood – what an utter privilege. I’m proud to think she may have sniggered at my “Scrabble” line, although nothing will ever top her innovative suggestion for the the Woman’s Weekly! LOL
Notice that MSM doesn’t say “Global Warming” anymore. The actual facts are a bit embarrassing, so they have switched to the vaguer and more nebulous “Climate Change.”
This has not passed under my radar, Dr. Salemi. I smelt a rat from the offset. I lived in England at the time of carpooling, smart cars, and congestion charges when contrails filled the skies with no mention of air pollution. I also lived through the age of “our children will never see snow again”, to many winters thigh deep in the freezing stuff of nightmares. I am sick and tired of being manipulated by false data spewed out by climate models that are only as good as the false data fed into them. When science is politicized it ceases to be science.
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
Kidding – keep writing! I Love that you express my thoughts so beautifully! I particularly LOVE Eternal Apocalypse and identify with it hugely. Love in the Time of Corona Virus is also very apt. Thank you!
Jerilyn, I am equally grateful to you for letting me know there are people out there that are still sane in this world of chaos and complete madness. We are most definitely sisters on a mission to save this ailing planet, and I am glad of the support. Thank you very much.
I really like both of these poems a lot. You have an unusually entertaining and evocative way with words Susan.
I’ve been singing and playing the song I composed based on your poem The Enemy Within and everyone who’s heard it so far has had a positive response to it. I believe that I’m getting closer to being able to pull off a recording featuring multiple instrument tracks, as my husband, who has the recording equipment and plays the bass, is warming up to the project.
Yael, thank you very much for your kind words. I am so excited to hear of the progress with “The Enemy Within”. Thank you for letting me know. I wish you every success with the project and look forward to hearing the end product. I feel this poetry site has a very strong voice for good, and to think of a message being set to music and relayed to a wider audience thrills me. You are a star!!
Susan, your poems are highly entertaining as we have come to expect.
‘Climate Change’ takes the blame for all manner of events now. Bushfires, for example, are somehow driven by this ‘process’ rather than through lack of regular fuel reduction, seasonal variation, or plain arson.
David, thank you very much for your lovely comment and astute observation. I’m hoping many are wising up to the political skullduggery surrounding “Climate Change”.
Susan, it’s not climate change per se that sticks in my craw, it’s the fact that climate change has been going on forever. This is nothing new, and neither are the idiots who claim that it is something new
I hear you, C.B. The subject matter is indeed boring. Nevertheless, I feel a timely humorous take on this idiocy might bring some to their senses.
Well done Susan: particularly like Love in the time of CoronaVirus, which seems almost an oxymoronic title! Ah! How passion reverts to a game of Scrabble is an amusing observation of the failing powers of human beings! Love it. Very well observed and written. And BTW, if you don’t know Bananagrams as a game, I strongly recommend it.
Thank you so very much for your lovely comment, James. The title of my coronavirus poem is oxymoronic, indeed! LOL If only I had known of Bananagrams while writing my poem – what an hilarious word to close my piece on. I’ve just looked this game up, and I think Mike and I will get a huge kick out of it… it’s the sort of game that will most certainly enhance our marriage during these dire times. 😉
Sue – it’s a wonderful thing to think that not only are we encouraging wonderful poetry on these pages, but also enhancing marital bliss!!! Linda and I regularly play Bananagrams!!!
James, I agree wholeheartedly. SCP is the place to be… for poetry… and blissful banananagram matrimony! LOL
Two well written pieces. The latter one could be an anthem for people like me, who just can’t understand how a lockdown is justified by a virus that has such a high recovery rate. Thanks Susan.
Thank you very much for your comment, Dave. I believe that people are slowly beginning to realize that this pandemic is being used to political ends. We are living in very worrying times indeed and so many people are suffering as a result… and not because of Covid, but because of the authoritarian reaction to it. I am hoping our long term future has sunnier horizons.