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| 2019. The Karoo Semi-Desert. Photo by Thomas Scarborough. |
by Chengde Chen *
When the face mask is offA Christmas smile appears But you know it is a forced oneWith much fearfulness underneath The plague persists with craziness Bones piling up mountain highGlobal warming knocks on the doorProving it has been too late to stop The conflict between the superpowers Increasingly lead to a world warWhich probably let nuclear powerDecide our joys and sorrows Three kinds of doom come togetherAs if to make sure there is no escapeBut it is this that gives 2022 meaning –To test human resilience to the full! * Chengde Chen: author of Five Themes of Today; The Thought-read Revolution, etc. chengde.chen@hotmail.com
The poet, as I remember, wrote something along the lines that if it can happen, it will happen. Combining that with the present poem, we hope that human resilience will triumph, but it may not. Unless we return to a simpler civilisation?
ReplyDeleteA dystopian view of 2022’s pending ‘doom’ and ‘test of human resilience’. The first stanza divines forced smiles and fearfulness. The second stanza divines a plague and bones piling up, along with unstoppable global warming. The third stanza divines a world war among superpowers, going nuclear. Well, on the plus side, only a short twelve months before the apocalyptic ‘test’ is behind us. Let’s hope we make it unscathed, to toast 2023.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, Thomas and Keith. Probably I meant the meaning of the arrival of New Year rather than the meaning of 2022 alone. Twelve months are too short, and too cruel, indeed!
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