The gradual warming trend will likely go on
And the grain belts begin to slide closer to the poles.
The Plains States will be abandoned as giant dust bowls.
Greenland and Antarctica will join the new Great Powers.
Even if we play them off against each other
For more aid, we’ll still be poorer than we are now.
Life will be different, good tillable land so dear
The suburbs will give way to farms, the cities
Fill up again with people too poor to own cars.
Walking to work or crowding on trollies,
We’ll move down streets lined with practical nut trees,
Not elms and oaks, with vegetables crowding the front
lawns.
The tax base will be too small to support the public
buildings.
We’ll have to donate hours after work each week
To rake the lawn of the Library and City Hall,
To tuckpoint the chimney of the Federal Building
If we don’t want the place to fall like temples in Rome,
Don’t want sheep to graze in our squares
As they grazed in the Forum for a thousand years.
With a little effort the country will go on.
So what if we’ve lost our high place to stronger Carthages
Whose far-flung fleets will be loaded with merchandise
Cheaper than ours. We’ll be glad to watch from the beach
As the lights from Korean armadas pass
On their endless patrols around the world.
Let them have their little time in the sun,
We’ll say to ourselves as we begin to sway
To the strains of our native beach band,
Ignoring the hits from the Arctic on the radio.
