This poem came to me while driving into a very reddish sunset. At first, I thought it was a short story, some kind of science fiction about the end of the world. But the repetition and rhyme were too insistent. Hope you enjoy this story-poem, and take from it a lesson or two. Thanks for coming by to read.
The astronomer told
The late-born son,
The fruit of his loins,
His precious one,
“In seventy years,
The sun will die.
And sooner, so will I.”
“I’ll never survive
The late-born sun,”
The late-born son
Replied, to one
With grizzled beard
And blinded eye.
“In fact, I’m sure, I’ll die.”
With grinning lips
And twinkling eye,
The son, he gave
This glib reply,
So bright with glee,
To think that he
Could ever be so old.
The grizzled gent,
He slowly bent
And crossed himself,
Chastized the elf:
“No one should wish that
On himself!
No one should be so bold!”
“I’ll never survive
The late-born sun,”
The late-born son replied.
“Why should I bother
To try? Not one
Will suffer, if I’ve
Nothing done,
Least of all me.
My progeny?
I leave no booty to them.”
“But all will die!
Humanity!
Not a soul be saved–
Insanity!
And an early grave
Is the price you’d pay,
To avoid your duty to them?”
“I’ll never survive
The late-born sun,”
The late-born son
Repeated.
When the ball is red
On horizon’s edge,
And is falling, falling
Off that ledge,
And it’s firey hot
And it glows and glows,
And the sky above
Is a deep, red rose,
And the sheepskin clouds
Warm the sherpa’s nose,
As he scales the frigid blue–
“I’ll be gone,
When the sun,
At last it sets.
No son of yours
Shall have regrets.
And none, then, shall resemble you.”
“Alas,” said the sage. “None do.”
Copyright 2021 Andrea LeDew
For a poem on how one person in a relationship can consider themselves as indispensable as the Sun is to the Earth, read The Circling of the Sun. For more on global warming read Green Land.
Despairing
This poem REGRETS is deeply moving to me, in its content, language, rhythm. Thank you, dear Andrea!
Thank you Margrit. At first, I thought it would be just a sing-songy father/son, old man/young boy interchange. Instead it turned out to be a rebuke of the apathy and lack of compassion that Earth’s present inhabitants feel for those of the future.