The Tide Is Turning…..

OCTOBER 2019: XR LONDON CLIMATE ACTION

By Jaye Brighton, UK

It was the noise
that drew them to the windows
high up in the Ministries of Silence.
 
They looked down from their windows.
Shouting, singing, calling.
Was it the beating of drums or hearts they heard?
Theirs or theirs?
Was this the incoming tide, the rising sea level?
 
Banners and flags aloft they came,
Slowly but surely.
Stopping, standing, sitting a while.
Backpacks, bed rolls, tents,
trolleys of pots and pans,
old oil cans and strange structures
painted and hung with decorations.
 
All ages, young and old,
some with sticks and wheelchairs.
It should have looked chaotic
yet it came in like the tide,
with a steady purpose,
impossible to turn back.
 
They’d expected rising water
but these were people on the move.
Should they go and join them?