the motorway to Damascus
A heavenly angel flagged me down
and asked for a ride into town
For God's sake,
on the motorway to Damascus
This heavenly angel, wise and pure,
proceeded with a guided tour:
"Behold! A shining city
of silver grey and white,
Of solar- panelled rooftops
glinting in the light
And wind- power generators turning
soundlessly through the night"
Mid- day on the motorway to Damascus
The heavenly angel flapped its wings and
told me more exciting things
Like how one day this
motorway to Damascus
Would disappear without trace,
the unsustainable replaced
"Behold! The new New Forest in four
hundred shades of green
Stretching out before us where
it always should have been
A botanical thesaurus for as far as the eye can
see"
Nightfall on the motorway to
Damascus
The heavenly angel looked at me and said "Well,
what's it gonna be?
The long haul,
or the shorter way to Damascus?
Choose with care and you will find that
one day there will come a time
When the silhouetted ruins of
the crumbling cooling towers
Are but ivy- clad reminders of
a long- forgotten power"
Must the mon keys leave Gibraltar's
rock and ravens flee the Tower
Before we look and see ourselves
for what we really are?