Nevertheless We Resisted

It isn’t like they didn’t try to tell us

with charts and graphs 

and documentary footage

of the ice cap melt and whales rotting

homeless on receding sand.

We had more than an inkling 

of the story arc,

but we were hooked 

on one-click shopping

and we didn’t want to share 

our fresh tomatoes with the slugs.

Besides, what point the sacrifice

of one-use plastic bottles and our Jumbo-trons 

with China burning coal to keep its billions calm

and Brazilians scything down the Amazon forest?

We figured scientific geniuses would innovate

new ways to cool the planet off

and suck the poison gasses from our air

before more CEO’s lost beachfront homes,

so we trusted those who told us

everything was fine and we should go

about our business like we always had

for hadn’t we taught cars to drive

and Roomba’s to remove the crumbs from floors?

Had we not shot men into space

and could we not ping vaycay photos 

from our mobile phones?

Impossible to make us ponder 

life with less as more,

erasing what we’d earned 

through brain power and force,

our kissing cousin kinship with Divine.

Who would dare deny our claim 

as masters of the universe –

our progress so evolved 

in such short time?

The Universal Master sighed

and dialed up the heat.