Jet Lag. It’s a thing. I got back from my honeymoon on Friday, fully intending to finish this poem well before Saturday night, and instead my eyes have been swimming for 36 hours and I barely did anything. I’d forgotten how bad it could be! Anyway, that’s why this is here now instead of my usual 3 am delivery. The good news is, I feel halfway human again, and I’m married! :)
This poem comes from an idea suggested to me by my stepdad, Rico, a cool cat with a climate-focused podcast you should consider checking out. It’s called “The Green Elephant in the Room”. Rico has been talking about the importance of climate for longer than anyone else I know, give-or-take, and it turns out he was more or less dead right the whole time. Here’s a link:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-green-elephant-in-the-room-solutions-to/id1437845993
The idea evolved from his original suggestion, but I’m so glad he gave it to me, because it turned into what is probably my favorite story I’ve written so far for this project. Without further ado:
The Asteroid
The things which whirl and snap and pounce
These weigh a pound for every ounce
Of stuff that drifts and coasts and floats along
In human minds that which is near
And moves fast causes greater fear
Than that which while now slow may yet be strong
*
T’was such began the asteroid
That one day would leave Earth destroyed
So far away it was when it was found
The power of our telescopes
Exceeded all our wildest hopes
And saw it long before it came around
*
Five hundred eight times round the sun
Before the rock’s voyage was done
And it became the center of our world
But when it did it was a fact
The Earth would have no further act
And into blackness we would all be hurled
*
Yet those who lived when it was seen
Would long ago have fled the scene
Before the boulder slammed into our side
So it proved tempting then to shift
The conversation onto thrift
Though their descendants’ fate they much decried
*
The budgets and priorities
The needs of poor minorities
Could not be tossed aside to save the necks
Of generations far along
The melody of human song
No matter the regrettable effects
*
There were of course even back then
Those few who had within their ken
The essence of Cassandra of the Greeks
They said if we did not begin
To save our own collective skin
With all the known and yet unknown techniques
*
That very day then we were lost
And one day those who paid the cost
Would curse us all with tongues that turned to flame
Or spin out on their death embark
A nowhere journey through the dark
To carry forth a whisper of our shame
*
But those Cassandras’ words were not
Enough to move the world a jot
So that first generation lived and passed
The stone hurtled along its way
Towards our fiery tête-à-tête
But certain questions were no longer asked
*
In company politeness meant
Not discussing to what extent
The talkers should hold themselves to account
For sacrifices they’d not made
Or subtle ways they’d underplayed
This obstacle we one day must surmount
*
And thus they reached a rough détente
With acting somewhat nonchalant
Towards the fiery ball of solid rock
That just as sure as the sun rose
Would send us all to our repose
Four hundred eighty years left on the clock
*****
For fifty years then thirty more
We chose together to ignore
The ticking clock that daily counted off
Apocalypse so far removed
The population was unmoved
And when the subject came up they would scoff
*
Many said it was all a lie
A government attempt to try
And gain a further measure of control
Some preachers long from pulpits spoke
As incense wreathed their eyes in smoke
And called it all a struggle for the soul
*
So there became not just a lack
Of caring but overt attack
On that which surely one day must be done
And those who saw with open eyes
With cynic’s wisdom did surmise
The battle t’was not fought could not be won
*
And so they called their fellows fools
A bunch of ghastly selfish ghouls
And tried to save the world without their aid
They put the call to every land
For any who could lend a hand
Millions joined their future-saving crusade
*
But those who did not believe yet
Refused believers calls to let
Their anti-asteroid project proceed
They changed the letter of the laws
Then made best use of every clause
And had their politicians intercede
*
A two-decade long stalemate
Ensued, until the random date
When earth had four hundred years left to spin
The asteroid was still afar
But closer than the closest star
And closer all the time to our chagrin
*
Round numbers do stick in the mind
That nice round date left some inclined
Who had denied now to support the cause
A hundred years having elapsed
The world began to think perhaps
T’was more important than they’d thought it was
*
Four hundred years were left to us
More dinner tables did discuss
The need to some day and somehow avert
The pain which otherwise would wait
On that distant but certain date
When the approaching rock became overt
*
As dinner table talk became
Something that more and more could name
The issue soon began to loom quite large
And though they rarely listened much
The talk grew to a timbre such
It attracted notice from those in charge
*
From supper time to internet
Even among the poshest set
The worried whispers grew into a shout
A politician mid-campaign
Found simple words that would explain
And suddenly our effort was all-out
*****
New schools were built by the score
In heartland and on sunny shore
To train our children to be scientists
The sports leagues did not play their games
Instead we learned the hallowed names
Of those on academic honor lists
*
The rock stars too, soon found their shows
Were made of naught but empty rows
As our eyes turned to world-saving goals
The preachers even found a way
To make their holy scriptures say
That we should save our bodies not just souls
*
A host of geniuses emerged
And gave their lives just as we urged
To make more future for our human race
A generation and then three
Applied themselves diligently
And made miracles at a record pace
*
A hundred years went by like this
We fought the approaching abyss
And made plans and did tests of every kind
The politicians fought of course
But science they did all endorse
Unto a dark fate we were not resigned
*
There were years in there when it seemed
That all the science we had dreamed
Would not in time’s fullness have been in vain
And in our efforts we would fix
Our other woes with science tricks
To put an end to hunger and to pain
*
They tested nukes designed to knock
The flight path of the massive rock
And argued over methods of transport
They pondered massive dish arrays
To focus the sun’s many rays
Into one beam the stone’s advance to thwart
*
But thoughts alone were not enough
Soon we had to start trying stuff
And when we tested out our grand designs
A nuke exploded by surprise
Darkening a continent’s skies
Blotting the sun to all on whom it shines
*
We continued to make mistakes
For that is just what science takes
But in their pride the scientists did not
Apologize for being wrong
Or placate well the madding throng
Instead they shamed and snarked and said we ought
*
To be more grateful they were there
Willing to give their lives in care
For people they themselves would never meet
The populace were not amused
And oh-so-quickly disabused
Those experts of their self-centered conceit
*
The scientists apologized
Yet they remained roundly despised
For they had come by then to represent
The very asteroid itself
Threat to civilization’s health
Two hundred ten years ’til the main event
*****
Where scientists had run aground
The politicians circled round
Those buzzards never missed a chance to feed
They hopped around and squawked and tore
The flesh of the scientist corps
And destroyed any hope they would succeed
*
The asteroid-denying cult
Resurged as a direct result
And now burned stronger with all this new fuel
They started a bombing campaign
Crash-landed a hijacked airplane
Into the flagship scientific school
*
Rather than in horror recoil
Or attempt then to disembroil
Their followers from all their ill intent
Too many bad politicos
Instead the violent road chose
And gave the terrorists tacit assent
*
The scientists then fired back
A social media attack
All hell broke loose across the world wide web
Within a month one could no more
Say who had won the P.R.-war
Our shared humanity was at its ebb
*
Yet even as the clamor rose
There remained then among us those
Who kept their brilliant eyes upon the goal
And kept the tests going apace
Methods to save the human race
By stopping the approaching rock in whole
*
One hundred sixty years until
The stone imposed its mighty will
When someone set off warhead number two
This one in a metropolis
Eight hundred thousand dead and this
Prompted another turning of the screw
*
The xenophobia and rage
Of rats abandoned in a cage
Catalyzed the societal breakdown
Someone attacked the power grid
China had a take-over bid
Portland became an overnight ghost town
*
And no one knew who did these things
We longed for olden days when Kings
At least pretended to be in command
Now our boat steered into the rocks
Past refugees on groaning docks
And no one on the tiller had a hand
*
Supply chains split their weakest link
And left whole nations on the brink
Of starving, or otherwise going dark
It turned out the entire place
The frothing, reeling human race
Was tinder needing but a single spark
*
With just one massive piece of sod
Thrown at us by the hand of God
An ending to all humankind contrived
But not with its final impact
It killed us yet remained abstract
For we were all gone before it arrived
*****
Inside a bunker in the north
A man of staggering net worth
Was the last human being left alive
Years until the rock descended
Leaving earth forever ended
Were uncertain but perhaps thirty-five
*
His wife and son had come with him
When the world outside had grown grim
As screw-turns busted through the locks and seals
That humankind had always thought
Protected them from what fate brought
But turned out to be deaf to our appeals
*
They planned to live out all their days
Among the greens and blues and grays
With warehouses of necessary goods
But his wife found she could not cope
Without the faintest flickering hope
She took his son and fled into the woods
*
And as the old man closed his eyes
Dying on a pile of supplies
He wondered at our savage lonely fate
And did we ever have a choice
Or is free will a madman’s voice
When we were born had it been far too late
*
Thus when the cause of earth’s demise
Appeared at last in daytime skies
And gave the blue a second tumbling sun
T’was not a single human set
Of eyes to see this strange duet
Of lights that shone as earth ended her run
*
Now if you think this tale of woe
This apocalypse blow-by-blow
Is about politics then you are wrong
Sure climate is an asteroid
That one day will leave earth destroyed
As feedback loops go on and on and on
*
And many issues are this way
Speeding towards an approaching day
When disaster will bring to us an end
Yet worse than what will come I find
Is losing our collective mind
It makes an enemy of every friend
*
But what this poem is about
The message I want to get out:
Remember with each fleeting, passing breath
Your place in every song we sing
Inside this shimmering golden ring
You are humanity—the asteroid, death
*
Already it moves towards us now
The only questions when and how
But it will come as surely as the stone
The question is will it destroy
Your hope and love and bliss and joy
And ruin all the days that you have known
*
Or will you fight to find a way
To make the most of every day
And feel the things that give your struggle worth
So when it comes it finds you here
Not having given into fear
And open to the treasures of this earth
END
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this poem, please help me out by liking, commenting, and sharing on your social media. Thanks so much, and have a great week!
Very well stated, Owen! So much to think about while reading this. Thank you!
Owen this is breathtaking! So many great lines …”your place in every song we sing, inside this shimmering golden ring” and “a nowhere journey through the dark to carry forth a whisper of our shame”.