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APPENDIX B
In the here and now
Rather than
A decade hence.
But Big Oil poured in millions
Money talked and people listened
The Initiative took a beating.
Opportunities are fleeting
And it’s already
Out of sight, out of mind,
All that we must leave behind.
No time to mope, the only way
To cope is to return to hope.
Or is it? Does hope motivate
Here in Seattle’s sister city
Connected by a totem pole
Down at Nordnes in Bergen?
Or does remoteness obfuscate
While hope simply distracts,
Sustaining the unsustainable
Regurgitating facts
About one point five degrees
While delaying acts
That would keep it all in the ground,
Firmly under the sea
Out around Lofoten
Where our politics are floundering
Much like Pacific island states?
What scope is there for hope
When murder merely agitates
Blinded by greed? A world that’s rigged
To keep expanding drilling.
Pumped by oil, we grease the wheels
And keep the coffers filling.
Softly we murmur “We are better
Than others at not spilling.”