Poem of Our Climate

The icy Sahara, 1/13/21.   Karim Bouchetata/Bav Media (via NY Post)

inauguration day in the u.s.a. --
every four years like clockwork, like
leap year
                       tho usually
not inside a fortified green zone
w/25k troops on hand --

the new president has a plan
(kinda sorta) to deal w/climate chaos,
& he has two good years to do it
before the other side is voted in.

meanwhile
 
in s. borneo, worst floods in 50 yrs;
63k humans displaced, 21 dead,
45k acres of food wiped out;
32 dead on java — landslides
(on top of an earthquake);
dozens missing; rescuers using smell
to find the victims. paper quotes
the president, not the survivors.

houses submerged in filipino villages;
another 100-yr storm in queensland;
a bolivian village w/water to the eaves;
“floods wash away cars
in gweru, zimbabwe” (and elsewhere);
more floods in n. of england (yorkshire)

& remember all the locusts in africa?
they’re back in botswana & namibia:
“heavy rains create conducive conditions”

& remember the abnormal heat & fires
in siberia? now they’re having abnormal
cold: -73 f in one town; “snow also
blanketed parts of saudi arabia,
which saw the mercury hit 28 f”;
below freezing in sahara, too

& the santa ana winds knock over semis
in so cal; 270k w/o power; multiple
fires (favorite name: the “freedom fire”)

& the 7 hottest years on earth have been
the last 7 years

& the oceans absorbed
20 sextillion joules of heat
in 2020, “equal to the energy from
10 hiroshima atomic bombs
being released every second
of the year” (man, that’s hot!) sez
u.s. ctr for atmospheric research dude

any wonder people prefer
a shadowy, far-reaching conspiracy
by other people
to all this mayhem?

o, your powerful presidency;
o, your pathetic poems.

good luck, joe.