Pause For Poetry:
Michael Hawkes /71

We Hadn’t Heard

A poem by Michael Hawkes

What happy heady times we had
when gasoline was really cheap,
back in the day when I was a lad
and hadn’t heard of global heat.

The mountaintops were capped with ice
the motorways had lanes to spare,
convertibles were half the price
and butterflies flew everywhere.

Though city smog was really bad,
air thick with coal smoke soot and lead,
our transports then were chromium-clad
we didn’t need to look ahead.

The forests stood, the rivers ran
top down, with wind in hair,
the beaches gleamed, the fishes swam,
in luxury beyond compare.

What carefree touring trips we had,
those Cadillacs were hard to beat
when guzzling gas was not so bad,
when we hadn’t heard of global heat.

I must admit that I’m remiss
in the feckless way I sometimes miss
those reckless days when no one knew,
when ignorance indeed was bliss.

23/03/24 – Hawkes

Feature image: Pexels – Jill Wellington

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