Recourse Of Cowards

“We need advanced economies leading on this issue
We can't afford anybody on the sidelines. Cynicism
is the recourse of cowards. We can't afford hopelessness.”
— President Barack Obama's speech at COP26 
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Some say the world

Will end in drought

Some leave it up

To  Noah's flash flood

Then there are those who say

It is what it is

We dare not second-guess the climate

No one coulda foreseen

Let alone, prevented the Ice Age

Climate change, they hold, is

Just nature shedding old skin

These bunch remain on the sidelines

To these, climate is versatile

Having capacity to improvise,

'We must, therefore receive

What Mother Nature gives

With open arms

And learn to adapt

To the weather forecast

Blaming fossil fuel

For a natural cycle

Is absurd if not cruel.'

But those of us with a mind

We who read between the lines

Must learn to organize

As effectively

As those sitting on the sidelines

And as diligently

As those who carbonize

By developing viable alternative

Sources of energy

The humankind must stand as one

In the battle for

The life of our world

We must craft an ultrapractical vision

We must pursue unified goals

If we settle for a compromise

Then we'll hold with those,

And I must indeed apologize

Who stand on the sidelines.

Akpan