“Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
”From “Ozymandias” – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Like the banks
we deemed ourselves
too big to fail
but when the rains came
mudslides and hurricanes
and all of them stronger
and more frequently
we discovered then
there was no-one
to bail us out…
Our leaders
many of them
thought that wealth
concentrated upwards
would rain gently
down upon the
huddled masses
or at least as far as
the middle classes
but the one percent
were so elevated
they couldn’t see
our plight
so far below
They thought
complexities of
climate change
too gnarly to
change course
and set their sights on
settling another planet
spaffing their pointless
bucks to fire off rockets
some of which
increased their wealth
seeding satellites
in an unholy net
across the heavens
to offer others
the dream of making it
to the top
or charged other
aspirants to admire
the blighted but
still beautiful Earth
from brief
sub-orbital sojourns
Will their legacy be
any more than Ozymandias
half buried in a desert
of their own making?
And what of us
the little people
are we to throw up
our hands in helplessness
and blame it on
those above us
for failing to
curb or even
feeding our appetites
for cars, fresh fruit
flown out of season
and batteries for our
mobiles – phones and cars
We may not leave
individual
broken statues
as our testaments
yet we are not islands
but part of the main…
© Andrew Wilson, 2024
Tonight, I am guest editing the prompt at dVerse Poets Pub for the Tueday Poetics spot. I have suggested an activist poem on any subject that gets your goat and as an optional challenge, poets can choose to begin with a Glose or quote, from another poem as I have done here…
Your stormy weather is powerful, Andrew, especially the ‘mudslides and hurricanes’ – so frightening, especially when there’s no-one to bail us out. I like how the motif of storm is carried into the second stanza as wealth raining ‘gently down upon the huddled masses’. And then you really get going in the third stanza, with ‘spaffing their pointless bucks to fire off rockets’.
Thanks Kim, I don’t know which was more nerve-wracking, preparing the prompt or writing the poem…
I hope it wasn’t too bad, smiles.
Your guns of words are blasting or blazing off tonight Andrew. I can relate to the inequality of weath and opportunities and can certainly empathize with the little people (not with the 1%) who are part of the main group and who matters the most. Thanks for firing up the prompt with an activist voice, and reminding us that our voice matters.
Thanks, Grace, and thanks for the opportunity – it seems to have gone well and has produced some varied and powerful poems. I have kept on top of commenting on people’s posts and am now getting around to replying to the comments on my own offering…
Superb writing, short, terse, max impact….your prompt was stunning in concept and richly detailed.
Thanks Ain, it seems to have thrown up some great poems…
“And what of us
the little people
are we to throw up
our hands in helplessness”
Poignant question
much🤍love
Thanks Gillena – I tried to read yours but it wouldn’t open on my phone – will try the computer in the morning – off to bed now as its nearly midnight and work tomorrow…
Stormy indeed – after writing poems about climate change and grief of it for nearly a decade, artful resignation seems a lousy third act. Maybe something else will evolve, but nothing I’ve read or said in any poem has shaken the world’s hunkered-down and distracted contempt of change. So I dunno. We go down making that music, like the chamber musicians playing “Nearer My God, To Thee” as the Titanic sank. What else are we gonna do? Thanks for tonight’s challenge, it will be interesting to hear what sounds are in the D’Verse works.
I think you are being too hard on yourself Brendan – you can not always see a seed germinating, a tap root getting established and you cannot know who has been influenced by what you have put out into the world…
Your poem rightly condemns us all. Thank you Andrew!
We can all do better for sure, Nolcha…
Totally thought provoking, Andrew.
I was never a marcher, or bearer of literal banners, Carol, but disambiguation, raising the right flags and writing a thought provocation – that I can do, I hope…
I love what you did with this Andrew! You rant is not without merit. It is sad to see how the rich get richer and the rest of us labor on…
Well you have an important election coming up, Dwight, so any messages you can create with your poetry have got to be good and you came up Trumps with this prompt – if you’ll pardon the pun…
our economy is based on the greater fool system – hoping there will always be one more foolish than us to pick up our mess. all these knives in the air, some have started to descend ~
indeed they have and I worry for the lives of my grandchildren…
Stormy weather, hubris, and fools– and will we be left like Ozymandias, thinking we were mighty, but left half-buried in the sands of time? Excellent response to your own thought-provoking prompt, Andrew!
Thank you so much, Merril – it has been a blast coming up with the prompt and with writing to it…
I agree with every word, Andrew. Including the cop-out of the ‘ordinary’ folk because it’s the fault of the rich/politicians/Chinese/immigrants etc etc and that absolves them from doing bugger all. We’re in it together, we have to bail together (and tax the rich till the pips squeak while we’re about it).
Thanks, Jane – the trouble is – they are so slippery to pin down – their wealth is diversified but glad you liked it…
I, for one, refuse to throw up my hands in helplessness. My voice may seem small but I know there are legions who feel as passionate, as angry as I do. We will not be silenced, we must not be shut down. We must do whatever we can to stem the gluttonous tide you speak of. Remember “we are part of the main” a crucial component.
It’s hard not to feel that one’s voice is merely a drop in the ocean but an ocean is nothing if not a collection of drops, Helen, and we must all believe that out individual voices count – that’s Democracy and who would have thought that even that concept is currently in need of defence in so many places around the world…
This poem is so relevant to today …it actually has a relevance to all time. We never learn 💜
It’s too easy to pass the responsibility onto others and to leave it to the next generation to deal with, thanks for visiting, Willow…
I felt this very much, it speaks to the awful reality of the presumption and contempt of commerce and politics for the people. Are we to throw up our hands indeed.
It doesn’t feel quite right saying I’m glad it resonated for you Paul but that’s it…