A cup of kindness yet and wait for Auld Lang Syne

Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II-In memory of Muriel Noreen who protested nuclear weapons when I was a boy

Both wore a poppy

Ghostly coal carts rattle on, along dark cobbled streets

While on the Clyde, worlds collide in well considered courtesy

Autocrats and Titans, anxious and expectant youth and small countries with great pride

Prattle on across a great divide of inequality gone wild

On and off the high road and the low, youth names it more blah blah

For those who fall in foreign fields no more the poppies grow

On Saturday night and a pint then Glasgow belonged to me

Now in retreat away from the bonny, bonny banks of Clyde

Where no more seen the red red rose or heard sweet melody of love

As rocks melt with heat my dear and seas are running high

We can only take a cup of kindness yet and wait for Auld Lang Syne

Year 2021, our 26th to heaven to demise of habitat and mankind

Skies darkly dusted and breath comes heavy on the chest

Polluted plumes of sand and ash with rising levels of the tide

As gravel falls far and wide the gavel falls in Glasgow

Poppies pleasing to the eye are button holed on this Remembrance Day

Recalling those who never aged and gave up life for us

Fallen, fortunate not to see this landmark day of shame

Of cop-out never cope, of phasing down but never phasing out

Emerging plans that sap-out all remaining drops of hope

As fragile humanity fights to maintain a universal mind.

Can we row in synchrony to keep our earth afloat?

Build a large enough sombrero to shield the pole

Sing in unison with all mankind and keep humanity on some safe course

Protect the northern skies and let the stars to shine

Or is just blah blah pie in the sky, a pack of lies

Steer clear from fear of holes above deep black or in the ozone layer

And those waiting each and all upon the ground

Maintain a well-chilled solid polar cap, stop meltdown of its ice-fields there

Keep one point five alive as song falls flat and harmony dies does not survive

not so surprising the temperature’s rising

As furnaces are stoked with black coal aburning, burning youth’s future dreams

Can we plug up above, the hole in the ozone’s thin layer

Block too much heat getting in stop too much cold getting out

Check dust bowls coming loose, hold back fast desert growth

Clean up plastic polluted seas; befriend the buzz of buzzing bumble bees

Secure sufficient food for all desperate needs put food on every man’s plate

Can we ensure greater value to life, eradicate hate

Deconstruct the concept to all known as race.

Can we overcome the deepest sense of dark despair?

Dry up misinformation floating in air everywhere

Do we listen, can we learn, or just let dry woodlands burn

Beware of trippers to moon and Mars, warring warriors bound  other stars

Take care; they will abscond with earth’s butterfly of hope

Can we return fish to the seas let  whales be?

Stop killing for fins, elephant’s tusks or rhino’s bones

Become true citizens of the world, not just of Athens or of Timbuktu.

Can we push through solutions, refuse to confuse, refuse vice, virtue to choose

Yes youth can, yes global citizen will they become

Pushing back yes as they must, Otherwise the world will go bust

No longer heard then the chimes of old Big Ben

No more  vapors emerge languidly from a fertile earth

No more church incense, light sense of perfume on the cheek

The smell of strong coffee in a cup.

Not in Myanmar on the Sudan, Afghanistan or in the Yemen

Hearts broken, bodies beaten, trapped on barbed wire borders

Through which no help or aid can pass

Death coming from cold, dehydration and bullets of brass

Refugee mothers and children sleeping on cold wet grass

Having survived some dark ship’s dirty hold a cruel captain’s whip

Sans shelter, sans water, sans bread, sans all.

For eons the sun rose on time, a mournful moon touched lightly the wild rose

Day underway, unfolded in its million ways and everywhere abundant hope

Not in the Ukraine or Belarus, Haiti, Nigeria, Somalia or in Zanzibar

While on the Clyde hope flows away with much blah blah

Hope that our leaders can stop a world breaking apart

We hoped they’d cope bring back some butterflies of hope

Stop flowers fading so fast in the spring

Sea summer droplets dazzle sizzle on hot rock to burn some shoeless feet

As water evaporates far faster now and autumn mist is muddier than wines’ must

Blood boils, wine warms, no transfusion, toast or jam

No more upon the midnight clear, owl’s hoot or a nightingale song.

Fragrant blossoms, lemon, cherry, lace no more the tranquil evening air

No more apples, apple cider, oranges, sweat pears or honeysuckle or radiant rose

To intoxicate the nose, fill eyes with joyous tears

Or help to comfort older ones dropping in on yesteryear

No more the beat, base and treble clef

No more the horn of plenty, empty, just lean years.

Earth trembles and its axis jerks, levies buckle, bones break and roofs cave in

While on Glasgow’s now deserted streets a ghostly cry is heard

Distinct the call of gardyloo.

Upended cars, collapsing homes and now a homeless treeless world.

Year round winter takes hold, rushing waters lightning strikes

No longer needed holes dug in the ground the folks have all long gone

So fare thee weel, ye bonny braies and bonny Annie Laurie

Oh god forbid a time with the planet’s basket bare

Eroded earth, lips cracked, no sip of water, life lived in despair

No longer pealing chimes, silenced now the bells

No ripening cherry, no laden orchard anywhere

A homeless world, no baby’s cry

The world’s no stage, entrances and exits closed.

Can we stop; slow down the undoing of our world?

The burning, flooding and polluting of the skies

Restore our world with glory, hope and splendid green

Blue oceans, red sunsets, rivulets and gently flowing rivers to the sea

All men and women equal and all people free

Yes we must keep smiles alive and well above the smile of one point five

Retain our laughter; nourish each and every baby’s cry

Yes we can, we must bring tomorrow this way back again

No we shall not let this world come all undone

No, no and no again

Deep pockets of the few filled and many of their cronies too.

No we shall not let the world go bust; dust unto dust, no no

We shall not let the body’s water balance break down

Skin dry, lips parched as vital organs thirst

Cells shrinking, membranes fray and burst

Blood no longer pumping by a once and carefree heart

Hearts can’t survive a rise of more than one point five

A higher rise and mankind will murky lie at  full fathom five

Bleached coral bones and, pearly eyes as coal still burns

A stagnant world, minds and souls now fossilized

And all that’s left on earth sinks deeper to become

New found coal a trilennia away from now.

Year 2021, our 26th to heaven or to demise of earth and man

Few wise hands to hand back hope to life

A road map to the future of no-cope

Net-zero no and one point five will not survive

Leaving now what happens up to youth

Leaving what happens to all youth to act together

Ramp up our world with new found hope and glory

We will not let you bring it to its knees

We’ll not let it fall apart, come all undone

Picked and stripped lean for mineral wealth

Peeled like a fruit for gain.

Going home again may be to homelands without sun

That long for light in valleys on hilly slopes and on the grassless plains

Longing for smells of woodland and high highland blooms

We will go home again, not let go of our fragile grip on trust

When spring comes round again we must make sure

Frogs will croak, lambs frisk, birds chirp, foals neigh

Fishermen in boats and lovers in the bay at night

Moonlight kissed trees, sun freckled leaves shimmering with bright light

Olives maturing well, oozing’s in shrinking autumn days

Olive branches that can be proudly waved again

When spring comes round again next year.

Till then can we fulfill our promises to youth?

Yearning as only youth can for quality of life and life in years to come

Fed-up with what until now has been done

Anxious that only Egypt’s pyramids will survive

Seen then as dunes, covered by the desert’s sand

Anxious as summer and winter may not reappear next year

Troubling doubts, droughts and high temperature and dried out tears

Will our world just disappear?

No! no! no! A thousand times no

We will not let seas rise higher or run dry

The red red rose will come full bloom in June

Sweet melodies of love in spring will echo to a thousand tunes

The sands of life will run as time goes by to tell the same old story

Youth will go ten thousand miles to find the smiles of Mother Earth

A mother more, to ease the pain, comfort and console a baby’ cry

But as rocks melt my dear and seas are running high

Let’s take our cup of kindness yet for the sake of Auld Lang Syne