In the lush green foliage of the avocado tree
a pair of gerygones are building a nest.
Their cascading notes are light and clear
as they busily flit and hover and pause
their little yellow breasts like tiny flags of hope.
**
I silently wish them every success against
the very valid appetites of the goannas,
the eagles, the red belly black snakes, the currawongs…
Is it right to deny these creatures a meal?
**
You can’t win
without somebody
losing.
**
Meanwhile China steps up to save the planet
“Carbon Neutral by 2060,” says Xi Jinping.
**
Others tell me about China like it’s a melting pot
of humanitarian issues; human lives being traded in
for government decisions. “We are so privileged.”
one friend says. “But what if some people’s lives
are being ruined by China’s decisions to go Carbon Neutral.”
I feel like I am trying to weigh individual hardships
against the value of the planet on which we live.
**
You can’t win
without somebody losing.
**
Chin on hands I turn back to the gerygones.
At this moment their little lives are my planet
and I would heartlessly fend off any hungry predator.
Out of the Cave 