‘Armageddon sneaks closer’: Starts at 60 reader shares bushfire experience

Since Starts at 60 released its first Community newsletter of 2020, we have been receiving your poems and prose about the bushfires around Australia. The poem below, ‘Armageddon Sneaks Closer’ was shared with us and written by Val Taylor.

Armageddon sneaks closer. Is this end-of-days?
Or one final warning? We must mend our ways.
Apocalypse nears as helpless one stands,
Captive and horrified, in thrall to the bands.

The band of big business who mockingly say
We make the profits while you lot just pay.
We care not for coral if we want a mine
Principles interfere with our bottom line.

The band of the ignorant who seem not to care,
Who shop on regardless, blissfully unaware.
Those plastic-wrapped goodies, so inviting to buy
End up in the ocean and sea-creatures die.

The band of some pollies, sadly chosen by us
To make our lives better but some simply disgust.
In cahoots with base media, whose word can we trust?
Like Nero they fiddle as our world turns to dust.

The band of deniers, well what say you now?
Are mega-fires normal? Please explain to me how.
Please explain to the firies who battle the blazes
Please explain to the homeless whose homes the fire razes.

Please explain to the animals fleeing in terror
From flames that came early, an awful frontier.
Not only the wildlife, cremated in legion
Also innocent livestock that grazed in the region.

How we laughed at the prophets, called them charlatans, fools
“So the end of the world’s nigh? Ha!” We still broke the rules.
But the Reckoning’s upon us, now we watch our land burn.
Not listening was stupid. Is it too late to learn?

Lend an ear to the elders, their knowledge is needed
For too long their counsel has gone by unheeded.
Custodians of land for centuries untold
Let the wisdom of Dreamtime replace lust for gold.

Combined with their knowledge, technology can
Provide an escape from the bonds of the bands.
We owe future species the right to lay claim
To a world where paradise is more than a name.

One shining band sprang from the flames recently
It’s the one band that matters, it includes you and me.
It’s the band of our brothers and sisters and friends
All together we must fight to not let our world end.

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