Audre Lorde Knows What I Mean – 2021 in review - 9. Part Nine: dei ex machina

.

Audre Lorde Knows What I Mean –

2021 in review

by AC Benus

 

“America today stands poised

on a pinnacle of wealth and power,

yet we live in a land

of vanishing beauty,

of increasing ugliness,

of shrinking open space,

and of an over-all environment

that is diminished daily

by pollution, and noise, and blight.”

—Stewart Udall, ^[i]

1963

 

 

 

Part Nine:

Environmental Collapse III

 

LIV.

 

Roundel

 

Such good news from New Delhi of a deadly smog—

News from London, the Themes is full of toxic sharks,

Though if you think we’ve reached some ‘weird’ highwater marks,

Know such 'Freaks of Nature' just start the catalog.

 

‘Cause it’s not Nature’s fault if Man’s a demagogue,

Pissing where we eat like dumb, fat-ass oligarchs;

Such good news from New Delhi of a deadly smog—

News from London, the Themes is full of toxic sharks.

  

We’ve made the world the mire through which we now must slog,

And no amount of finger-pointing or remarks

Can cool, or clean, or save forest fires from the sparks

When we’re the tyrant, and Nature’s the underdog.

 

Such good news from New Delhi of a deadly smog—

News from London, the Themes is full of toxic sharks! [ii]

 

 

LV.

 

The New Normal

 

The New Norm, which we’ve yet to see,

Was proposed fifty years ago

In a study by MIT.

 

Warmth, peace, comfort was all to go

As a new Dark Age ushered in

Dog-eat-dog as we’ve yet to know.

 

With natural resources thin –

Consumed and used up without care –

The World to Come will be a sin.

 

Acid and plagued will be the air;

Poisoned and befouled the water;

Insects dead, famine everywhere;

 

Family son saved by selling daughter;

No law except that of a gun;

No survival except through slaughter.

 

And though it might surprise to learn

These scientific predictions –

Ignored, saying our homes will burn

 

Through a ruined Earth and human frictions –

Have been around for fifty years,

Their numbers face no contradictions,

 

And in fact tell our nagging fears

That ‘this world can’t go on’ are true,

Though it’s still falling on deaf ears.

 

2048 is the date –

So mark your advanced calendar –

When your kids will live in a Failed State. [iii]

 

 

LVI.

 

von Das letzte Lied

 

(Nach dem Griechischen, aus dem

Zeitalter Philipps von Mazedonien)

 

Fern ab am Horizont, auf Felsenrissen,

Liegt der gewitterschwarze Krieg getürmt.

Die Blitze zucken schon, die ungewissen,

Der Wandrer sucht das Laubdach, das ihn schirmt.

Und wie ein Strom, geschwellt von Regengüssen,

Aus seines Ufers Bette heulend stürmt,

Kommt das Verderben, mit entbundnen Wogen,

Auf alles, was besteht, herangezogen.

—Heinrich von Kleist,

1809

 

from The Final Number

 

(After the Greek, from the

Age of Philip of Macedon)

 

Off far horizons, in the cracks of the rock,

Dark and thunderous war begins its mounding.

The lightning twitches, and the weak feel the shock,

Running for cover, under trees abounding.

But like a torrent, the streams swell and unlock

Annihilation sweeping and surrounding,

Howling out of its banks as the doom seems fit

To wash over all trying to withstand it.

—Heinrich von Kleist, [iv]

1809

 

 

LVII.

What do you think can explain the mindset

Of dumping 25,000 barrels

Of DDT in the ocean, right off

The coast of L.A.’s most crowded beaches?

 

What explains the military mindset

Of forcing GIs to light bonfires

Of super-toxins with no protections

By order of King Bush I through his

Pentagon control in the early 90s?

 

What explains the hopelessness we now feel

From evil controlling the way we live –

From corrupt Gops and glib corporations –

To make a buck on human suffering,

Ruining every refuge the world has left

Because we’re dumb brutes who shit where we eat. [v]

 

 

LVIII.

 

Poisoned Blood

 

Not only COVID

is making humanity

Dumber, but manmade

chemicals infect our brains.

 

Human waste full of Prozac

Pollutes every watershed

Cities and towns tap into.

Teflon is detected in every newborn.

But if you think that is bad,

It’s the tip of the iceberg.

In the blood of the unborn

Flows plasticizers from food

Contamination on plates,

Forks, Single cups, and bottles.

The babies’ blood also has

Flame retardants, pesticides,

High volume petroleum

Chemicals in abundance,

Pollution from artificial

Candle and aerosolized

Toxins used for fake fragrance,

And nearly 40 others

So top-secret in their

Military-Industrial

Complex uses their names are

Totally unknown to our

Healthcare service providers.

Here’s what voting Gop gets you

And all your unborn children.

 

Not only tin foil

is making humanity

Dumber, but manmade

politics infects our blood. [vi]

 

 

LIX.

 

Poisoned Air

 

China’s pollution now

— in 2021 —

Is more massive than all

Emissions of the rest

Of the industrial

Countries’ total combined.

 

Twenty years ago we

Could have been selling them

Clean solutions, but then

Lil Bushy Junior

Was in the pocket of

Big Oil, so no sale. [vii]

 

 

LX.

 

THE EARTH AND YOUR CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

vs.

THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

 

We’re so out of touch

With Nature and Nature’s God

We literally

Don’t know what time of day it is

‘Cept by the clock’s lying hands.

Wake Up!

 

‘The Man’ barks we must

Get up an hour early –

Telling us we’re late! –

Then keeps us one hour after work,

Snigg’ring how much time was ‘Saved.’

Wake Up!

 

We grope in the dark

Ignoring our body’s clock,

Feeling horrible,

And wonder at the world’s state

While we wither in our selves.

Wake Up!

 

Rise up against this

Daylight Pretend Time madness;

Refute your own lies

Told by ‘The Man’ you like it,

Because you know, you HATE it!

Wake Up! [viii]

 

 

LXI.

In 2018, fossil fuel toxins

In the atmosphere killed some 8.7

Million people outright. So our not caring,

8.7 million times, is now Man’s lot.

How easily we kill with our shoulder shrugs. [ix]

 

 

LXII.

Who in the world today

Thinks self-replicating robots

Is something like a good idea?

 

And yet, now they exist,

And 2021’s the date

Mankind crossed o’er this stupid line. [x]

 

 

 

¤{ }¤{ }¤{ }¤{ }¤

¤{ }¤{ }¤{ }¤

¤{ }¤{ }¤

¤{ }¤