I am a time traveller

I am a time traveller

And I saw history made

My seat was in the grandstand

I watched the Earth degrade.

As a youth I saw Donald Trump

With his amazing hair

And people walked  to the north pole

When they still had ice flows there.

I saw the London Olympics

Mo Farrah winning gold

And Britain leaving Europe

Democratically I am told.

I remember sparrows

They were little birds- quite sweet

And cars that ran on fossil fuels

And rich men still ate meat.

I remember fondly

We kept a dog at home

Now they’re just for mental health

Bred from a single clone

And there were other animals

We managed somehow to lose

Was it Chinese medicine

Or when we closed the zoos?

They said to us in school each day

“Think Big, the sky’s the limit,”

But we only have one world to share

And so many of us in it.

I am old but when a child

I didn’t see our errors

I never saw my need as greed

That caused such climate terrors.

Historians have called my span

The plastic blindfold  era

We always thought we’d have it all

Though now we see much clearer.

I only have one great grandchild

Though rich men pay for more

We’ve reduced our population

That’s what you get with war.

Steve Blakesley  © July 2019