Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Recycling

Sometimes
When I accidentally toss a can
Into the rubbish bin
Rather than the recycling bin
And I wrestle with the big question
Shall I retrieve it?
Or not bother?
I find myself pondering
The heat death of the solar system
When one day we and it
Will be vaporised and
Engulfed into an expanding sun
And if we’ve left the Earth by then
And are living elsewhere
I think about the stars
Moving away from one another
At breakneck speed
And the night sky empty, but for a tired moon
No stars
Just total loneliness
Though some say
The Universe will the breath in
And the stars will rush towards a common centre
And the universe will implode
Leaving nothing
Just a tiny dot
That is the weight of everything there has ever been


And I shrug
And leave the can in the wrong bin
Or sometimes I shrug
Retrieve the can
And throw it into the right bin
And sigh



I shrug and sigh
Like the two collared doves
Sitting on the telephone wires
In the lane

8 comments:

Roger Stevens said...

You can see and hear me reading this here -
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6zbeiwmKhY

Isn't YouTube wonderful?

Wastedpapiers said...

and very nicely you read it too Roger!

YouTube is great.

Russell Ragsdale said...

All that matters will be recycled. Wistful poem Roger, with an underlying sense of humor! I've got to try your YouTube reading. Good to be reading you!

Russell CJ Duffy said...

My wife is really into recycling. She takes everything to the recycling plant. The only trouble is that she took me there recently and came back with a new, fresher and far greener version.

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

So glad you wrote it down as well, not one you can absorb completely without seeing it too.

Wastedpapiers said...

Happy National Poetry Day! Hope you had a very poetic time.

Cherrypie said...

How very apt.

I've just been dumped. In the trash. Not a second thought for whether my component parts could be recycled.

Pleased to meet you, Roger x

Hobbes said...

Ooh. Great ending.