Sue Le Mesurier
BP Regrets
14 BILLION dollar response, responds as
oil rigs pillage and plunder
in deep-waters, a blowout sinking loss
11 regrets 11 times11
A release of fire, burning, burning on the rig
plundering un-promised ends,
losses sinking in with 11 regrets
14 BILLION dollar response, responds
How to recognize smoking horizons,
running backwards on ice-age time,
preventer of responsibility, preventer of
11 regrets 11 times 11
Horizons of a sinking breath – who is responsible?
Fracking words tumbling like lies,
‘we regret’ 36 hours of innocent losses
14 BILLION dollar response, responds
Loss is deep, in these deep waters, while the Gulf
of Mexico burns and wild birds die.
Truths sinking just out of reach.
11 regrets 11 times 11
Clean those spills, spilling ‘economically’
whilst wells are sealed with lost eulogies, lost
lives, and lives and lives again …
14 BILLION dollar response, responds
We plunder and plunder –
madness and glory in exchange for immortality
14 BILLION dollar response, responds
11 regrets 11 times 11
Based on the villanelle form and a cento approach. A poetical work composed of verses or passages taken from other authors; only disposed in a new form or order. In response to: Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident and response.
The Storm
Gods unleashed their wrath from far off temples as
mighty winter rain poured forth.
Spiraling
in the sweep,
whirlwinds of stony water
crookedly
finding its way down the panes.
In these wastelands of unreality,
the mighty water plunders every fertile curve.
Eyes bewildered by flashing lights,
my ears pretending not to hear as
windows wept
throughout the night.
The old walls creaked and groaned
then shuddered a last death moan.
Doused in vagueness, delusions,
as nature
– ploughed and plundered –
my face, where cracks run deep,
still
as my past stretched far and wide.
At dawn all is revealed.
Sue Le Mesurier is a Geneva-based poet
