A Time of Burning

"Mourning a disappearing world as Australia burns"

(Headline from The Globe and Mail)

A Time of Burning

“Some say the world will end in fire,” the poet, Frost has said.

Though he also offered the possibility of ice,

World’s end was nevertheless the given.

Talking about final days has often been a pastime

for those with time on their hands.

They could speak of it and move on in comfort

just as one may exit the theater for ice cream

after a harrowing horror show on the big screen.

“No Exit” was seen by Sartre

and then seen by many on stage.

Even when the prophets speak

we have always managed to find

at least a restroom

and assurance that the world outside still waits.

There comes a time of burning

when the old ways pass.

Instead of quietly fading

like an old cover from

The Saturday Evening Post,

The known world is consumed by fire.

Angry fire,

Cleansing fire,

Raging fire…

It all depends on perspective.

There was a time

when men at war

under enemy fire

Sang longingly

to keep the home fires burning.

Today 

our greatest hope is in catastrophe.

We could not hear the warnings

while living in ease.

World’s end seemed a fantasy,

or a fearful cry of

Fringe environmental zealots.

If we can survive catastrophe,

perhaps a new day will dawn.

If not,

perhaps creation can rest

from her struggles.

~ Charles Kinnaird

________________________

Photo credit: Adam Stevenson / Reuters - A kookaburra perches on a burnt tree in the aftermath of a bushfire in Wallabi Point, Australia, on Nov. 12, 2019.
From The Globe and Mail, "Mourning a disappearing world as Australia burns"



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