Island beach shack, mixed generation crew,

climate change havoc for their return flight,

fire, wind, rain, a toxic infernal brew

grounding small aircraft, the mainland alight.

Bright I Geners are overdue a week

at work, avant-garde egos clamouring.

Their Silent Gener, prolix, future bleak,

has stared down harsh crises, blood hammering,

bites down on scorn, his frustration scabrous.

Raw times through climate cost loom soon enough,

the warming sea, dear Earth’s ruinous loss,

begs action, love, for those doing it tough.

Tide higher, iPhones stir, buzz once again.

Sad, he scans dense cloud, strains to hear the plane.

…

Ian C Smith’s work has been published in Antipodes, BBC Radio 4 Sounds, cordite, The Dalhousie Review, Griffith Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Southword, & The Stony Thursday Book.  His seventh book is wonder sadness madness joy, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide).  He writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, and on Flinders Island.