The Bumblebee
From the Squash blossom flies
Tired, pollen bathed and heavy eye lids dusty
150 million years of pollinating decried
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Swift
Old enough to have seen T Rex in the flesh
Flies two million kilometres in its shift
No longer under my eaves reside
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Koala
Iconic marsupial cuddly up a tree
Feeds on eucalyptus a priori
So dies trees expiring from Carbon Dioxide
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Polar Bear
Can swim sixty miles without a break
Once smelling prey ten miles near
There is no smell the ice long fried
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
Staghorn Coral
Architect of the subterranean deep
Bleached in warmer water, no food, not normal
Lodgers, clownfish. hornbill turtles, no longer abide
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
Atlantic Cod
Cheap fish for every chippy battered feast
Over fished because of livelihood
An uncaring species’ genocide
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Monarch Butterfly
Beautiful orange migrate 3 thousand miles
Their caterpillars left with milk wood dry
To die from herbicides and insecticide
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Emperor Penguin
A happy Charlie Chaplin substitute
Happy feet say amen
On the long walk to its own regicide
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Beluga Whale
Well meaning boated tourists
Motorised watching expeditions the Holy Grail
Destroying life, idly set aside
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Leatherback Turtle
Lays eggs on disappearing beaches
Ever more hatching females infertile
Their hoped for progeny denide
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Flamingo
Mann’s pretty pink flamingo not a pretty tune
A lost overture that made shrimps agogo
A colour on the palette atrophied
Unknowing of dawning Ecocide
The Climate Change Denier
Celebrating fossil fuel profits
Spitting on what others call Guya
Flouting science with such pride
Not giving a toss about Ecocide
Phil Cosker 