516 : The Writing on the Wall

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #109) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:  

nebulous, cut, vision, hover, opaque, blazing, torch, slab, 

bleak, crush, timing, touch, breath

The Writing on the Wall

“Growth for the sake of growth

is the ideology of the cancer cell”

–Edward Abbey.

The future’s nebulous, at best,

And rarely well predicted.

When we are looking beyond today

Our vision’s quite restricted.

But still, there are hints of what’s to come

Seen dimly through the opaque haze;

Like Indiana’s blazing torch,

Showing drawings in a cave.

And hovering in the smoky light, 

a slab

With inscriptions cut in stone:

“Here lies the remnants of sapient man

Who breathed his last, alone.

He permitted social policies

Where the powerful crushed the weak,

But once they trashed the sky and land,

Their survival hopes were bleak.

The timing of the tribe’s demise

Was driven on by greed:

The leaders were both out of touch

And committed to their speed.

They could not see the obvious fate

Of growing, unencumbered:

Once the host's resources end

A parasite’s days are numbered.”

Is this what the future holds?

Or can we change our track?

Can we live on this lump of rock

Or will the insects take it back?

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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