The Warnings

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

The Warnings

 

We should have known

We had more warnings than we can count

We should have known when Katrina

Filled the Gulf of Mexico before

Leaving the ninth ward a ghost town

We should have known

 

We should have known when torrential

Floods ravaged India and Pakistan

When Hurricane Rita slammed into Cuba,

Texas and Louisiana

When Ivan brought havoc to Venezuela,

The Gulf Coast and the Caribbean

We should have known when Ike

Ran its course from Texas to Iceland

When Sandy buried New Jersey in floodwater

When Harvey made waste from

The Yucatan to Texas

We should have known

 

Tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons

Storms the size of continents

Glaciers falling into the oceans

Polar icecaps melting

Islands swallowed by the sea

 

No one can say we were not warned

No one can say we didn’t see it coming

We saw, we knew and we turned away