Smog, by David Tait
I don’t have long to write
so let me tell you that today’s smog
is so thick that I’ve sat inside
with a headache, wearing a face-mask
next to an air purifier, that the recorded figures
are double the hazardous limit, that these measurements
are probably a generous estimate, that I’m sitting
within my dubious force-field with leaking eyes,
that outside there are mechanics and window cleaners
and school kids and flower-sellers with lungs
like the bottoms of an hour glass,
that they are breathing and coughing
and dying too soon, that I love a man
but they won’t let him in, that it kills me,
that it’s killing me.
David Tait lives in Shanghai, where he works as a teacher trainer. His books include ‘Self-Portrait with The Happiness’ and ‘The AQI’. His newest pamphlet, ‘By Degrees’, is released in October 2021.
Photo by Rafael De Nadai on Unsplash
Broga
We are a truly stupid species. Not content with slaughtering into extinction so many species other than our own we are now intent on destroying ourselves. We cannot safely breathe air because, as a result of our activity, it is so polluted. The seas and rivers are fouled by us. There is scarcely a river in the UK that is clean. Instead, we pollute them with our sewage.
While the environment is being trashed, with apparently minimal concern from governments, we are provoking each other to the point of war in Croatia and elsewhere. The UK is obsessed by the number of parties in Downing Street where there appears to be no control over the government. Previous values and morals have been replaced by any lie that suits those in power.
In a grotesquely over populated planet there is concern that the birth rate is dropping. This while the existing population is overwhelmed by its own ordure and millions are starving. And we are now while widely infected by by diseases like Covid, many of us oppose vaccination and attack those who support it.
As a species we are destructive pests, undeserving of a potential paradise of a planet, and with little hope of continuing to live in decent conditions. Our technical abilities have far outstripped the slow rate of our evolution. At present many of us are living in a fools paradise. A reality check is rapidly approaching which cannot be ignored by the most blinkered of us.
Katie
Hi Broga
I appreciate the passion and strong feelings in the comment you shared in response to David’s poem, and I thank you for taking the time to share them here. I want to share a couple of my observations, offered in a spirit of connection and love.
The Deep Adaptation framework encourages us to aspire to discover/dream more loving responses to our predicament. Whilst anger is a valid, even normal, response to what we may be witnessing, it’s unhelpful to frame humanity as stupid or undeserving. There is beauty and horror everywhere, indeed the potential for such in every individual. The discourse around ‘humans as a disease’ is not one that helps me to discover loving responses. Rather I feel deep sadness, regret, and also forgiveness (the fourth ‘R’ of Deep Adaptation is reconciliation).
It’s also very important to note that the “we” or the species you refer to is not a homogeneous group. Cultures that have come to be characterised by extractive capitalism and colonialism have created the worst impact on the earth’s ecosystems; there are many people and cultures who have had far less negative impact and who are experiencing the worst impacts of the climate catastrophe.
And finally, the issue of over-population is a contentious one, which we treat with caution in the DA Forum. Regardless of whether it’s your intention (and I doubt it is), the argument about over-population arrives with subtle layers of racism – those connotations exist not because of what you intend, but because of decades (or more) of widely accepted myths about over population in global majority countries.
Katie (DAF editorial team)