Sirens Are Blaring, and I Know You Aren’t Deaf
By MEREDITH DELONG
If climate change is such a charade,
If my generation has lost its mind,
Let me show you a mermaid
Who dared eat her decayed
Scales when there was no food left to find.
If climate change is such a charade,
Why is her once-luscious green braid bleached?
Why maintain this frame of mind?
Let me show you a mermaid
Driven from whitewashed reefs and afraid.
She won’t find shelter ‘til the temperature’s declined.
If climate change is such a charade,
Why is she too bloated, too swollen to wade
Beyond toxic dead zones? We left her behind.
Let me show you a mermaid
Who chokes on bile trying to serenade
Without oxygen, who’s already gone blind.
If climate change is such a charade,
Let me show you a mermaid.