“The world in which you grew up, in the nineteen forties,

Was more secure than mine, born two thousand, your ears

Were full of a won war, ours of a lost climate and threatened

Extinction:  We got global warming in Primary School with less

Hope of its amelioration than of curing the playground mess

Of crisp packets. And we know that you are liars: we’ve had

Twenty years of older people saying theres a climate crisis

And doing nothing about it. My auntie asked a taxi driver,

As he drove her home, “Aren’t you worried about global warming

for your grandchildren?”  “No. That’ll be their problem,

I’ve got mine.” Trump denies it, but at least he wants a new

Cool home in Greenland, so maybe he’ll distribute a few

Square yards of it to his grandchildren, while we have floods

In winter and fires in summer. Do you wonder why I need drugs

to stay sane! If I am sane. 64 % of us admit to mental disturbance

including consideration of suicide. But if you are inclined to envision

us as nutters, remember that we have less faith in politicians

than any previous generation. Theorists say we’re poisoned

by the internet, but my experience is I’ve been made wise and

informed by the connections that showed me the antarctic

giant sea spiders, once land creatures, who in ecological disaster

took to the water, adaptive, beautiful beyond their struggles’ frenzy

offering an example that may be relevant to me and Gen Z.”