Early Warning.

Did you see the sea coming at you?

No, she said, it came too fast

Like a mountain running at the moon

Nothing could stop it not stone

Not metal not wood not flesh

We had only seconds as the sea

Had millennia to devour us

Pushing in like a quarry of death

Water and mud crushing what was left.

So had time cheated these people?

Or had nature played a cruel trick

Or had we all been blind to the consequences

Of exponential growth unchecked

Us waiting on the beach of the undetected

Wet, shivering and unprotected

© shaun patrick green 2013

Terror Australis

You could see the fear in his face

As he stepped off the plane

The heat hit him like a sledgehammer

Then there was the hospital digs

"Spartan" not quite the right word

Yet he put on a brave face

Against this Territorial death wish

Wave upon wave of human trash

People determined to drink

Themselves to death or die trying

Never questioning why, just dying

Their insides turned to mush

Brain dissolved, will to live gone

Walking the land like ghosts

Drips half hanging out their arms

Drool hanging from half open mouths

As they collapse on shaded paths

Here would be a good place to lie down

He shops for bare essentials

Survives on four hours sleep

Awaiting the next wave

Not of arrivals by boat

But departures by alcohol

© shaun patrick green 2013

The Mangroves' Edge.

What does it mean to be shirtless

In a city of shirtless men?

He stands at the mangroves edge,

Fire failing behind him,

Wife asleep, cask empty.

Maybe go for a walk, see his country.

Night black but for a splash

Of spilt milk - whitey claiming the sky.

Lights along the road where

He used to feel his way in the dark.

This whole town now one big car park.

Bare feet on bitumen,

Sign says Botanic Gardens:

He needs to lie down,

Feel grass under his head.

So he sleeps under a big old tree,

Dreams of serpents fighting brolgas,

Their eggs split into three.

Wakes with the sun to see white men

Strolling fat, shirtless and free.

© shaun patrick green 2013