No storms in Eden

Guys, these days I've been thinking about the sun's heat a lot. And it might be because the AC in our car was down this past week which made driving through the sweltering heat for the school run on afternoons near unbearable.

Most days I'd drive with the windows down, hoping to catch a bit of breeze but I'd be drowning instead in the humidity. I mean, it would be so hot, you'd literally see the heat waves rising from the streets.

And you'd think it would be cooler on late evenings when the sun's gone down, right? Nope. We'd sit outside on evenings and the place would still be terribly hot, and the only thing that might be different would be that we'd be slapping our legs every minute or so for mosquitoes.

And it might be because we live in an urban area, it might be that a rural community is cooler, I don't know.

So yesterday, on Saturday, the family took a trip to the mall and on the way there, I was just reflecting about the heat and the climate and the impact that we have had on the environment, right? And so, I noticed that some of the houses I passed, galvanize roofs were held in place by concrete bricks, and I got to thinking that if a storm were to pass, a brick could hardly hold the roof in place. And so all of that inspired a poem which I wrote today. It's titled "There were no storms in Eden", it's free verse and I shared it first on Peakd.

Here's an edited version with some moderations.

There were no storms in Eden

Driving through sunny streets,
I'm surrounded by our hubris.
Melanin in my skin keeps my cheeks from burning,
But there are no spectacles to shield my eyes from observing our arrogance.

As men, we puff our chests out to the wind,
Thinking that in a war with nature, we could win.

Vandals hiding in paper houses,
Roofs held in place by paper weight bricks
That a hurricane could lift with a finger flick,

We think ourselves equal to our creator,
The invention thinking to better,
Presuming that we could improve upon nature with technology.
The irony.

There we go, foolhardy,
Covering the sea with plastic blankets,
Covering grasses with concrete carpets,
Building monoliths like middle fingers to the sky,
Boarding paper rockets, to the moon we fly.
Sending rovers to Mars,
We presume to write our destiny in the stars.
Tasting a crumb and thinking it the whole dish,
Bending the laws of nature to our wish,
This is the definition of hubris.

Here we are, men.
Taking pride in our intelligence, making no comment about our stupidity
As we trample across Earth's surface, thinking to fool nature by planting a tree,
Thinking to hem her into parks and reservations,
Thinking that the damage we have done can simply be undone with a bit of remediation.
Thinking ourselves victims when we are the ones inflicting our own punishment,
Thinking ourselves co-owners, investors, when we are but tenants...
And our rent is past due.

Children of Icarus, we have flown too close to the sun.
Our pride carried on the wind, we bask in our exuberance,
But remember,
There were no storms in Eden.
And so, today we awaken to the fact that our knowledge is not wisdom.

Driving through sunny streets,
Cranking up the AC to escape the heat
Of nature's glare,
I fear...
I wish...
No, I pray for forgiveness.