When you're in Rome...

Up the slopes of Kathmandu 

or down in the gutters of Baku 

Lost in Piccadilly Square 

or off the coast of Saint-Nazaire 

This aphorism’s always true: 

when you’re in Rome do what the Romans do 

From Tokyo to Monaco 

or struggling through the Oslo snow 

From old Saipan to Kazakhstan 

Keep the rules and follow the plan 

No matter where you’re travelling through 

when you’re in Rome do what the Romans do

Out in San Francisco Bay 

or on the road to Mandalay 

In Luxembourg or Lichtenstein 

or the dusty streets of Palestine 

Head for the north from Timbuktu 

when you’re in Rome do what the Romans do 

In Chile, Mexico or Brazil 

or climbing up a Turkish hill 

In the rain forests of Malaysia 

you know exactly what I’ll say to ya: 

If you’re in doubt or you’re in a stew 

when you’re in Rome do what the Romans do

On an oil rig north of Aberdeen 

a runaway wedding in Gretna Green 

riding the plains of the Argentine 

and every point that’s in between 

There’s just one thing I’ll say to you: 

when you’re in Rome do what the Romans do

Steve Wheeler © 4 March, 2021

image source

Endgame

It doesn’t take a Herculean effort / to see that life on this fragile blue planet / is becoming precarious and more than it / can contain is coming down on it / as nature writhes around in a febrile fit / while we transform each forest into a barren desert / and there seems no easy way of stopping it / as each corporation grasps for its share of the profit / we see the loud mouthed social media misfits / and hear all the political spin prophets / selling their souls on the back of it / and looking away from change in the climate / as they continue to deny there’s anything in it. // 

This is more than a tragic shame / and we all need to take the blame / rich and poor, all of us are just the same / no excuses, whether justified or lame / we just sold our planet down the lane / when we took our eyes off the ball in the game / and our children’s futures are running down the drain / as we start the countdown for this planet's endgame. // 

We have long been abusing our tenure / when we think we can do what we want here / but as the sea levels rise dangerously higher / and destructive storms become increasingly stronger / and drought and floods are an imminent danger / the odds are becoming so much longer // 

as we try to prolong our collective survival / our carbon emissions stand without rival / and you know this stuff is far from trivial / though the will to stop it ain’t controversial / but all of the top climate change deniers / and the myriad ignorant science decriers / conveniently overlook all the facts in the files / they’re fiddling while the earth is on fire / like Nero did as Rome’s flames burnt higher / every last one of them is an absolute liar / each one is a self-interested betrayer / all part of a cabal of elite conspirers / hellbent on taking this down to the wire / while the Earth sits upon its own funeral pyre / and the future for our children is critically dire / and the world’s population is foundering in the mire // 

We’re living in a world of torment / where we all of us could easily prevent / the world’s next extinction level event / if only we would mutually consent / to limit the rubbish we have sent / up into the sky and the firmament / we know the atmosphere is not infinite / and our resources were never permanent / but the population seems to be hell bent / on a global scenario involving detriment //

The exponential rise in killer diseases / signals imminent destruction of our species / and while our survival chance decreases / it’s likely we’ll see the mass decimation / of our society in this next generation / with industrialised total domination / and ecological saturation / through the wanton, thoughtless jeopardization / of the health and safety of the population. //

This is more than a tragic shame / and each of us need to accept this blame / rich and poor, we’re all in this the same / there can be no excuses, whether justified or lame / for the way humanity has played this game / we collectively sold this planet down the lane / each of us has initiated this planet’s endgame // 

Steve Wheeler © 12 November, 2020

Photo by Pixnio