Global & Local

Chernobyl's melt down poisoned Russian air With half a million hurt, their homes, no-go In Oshawa, a family hired a lodge, To hunt and fish by Lake Ontario The Indian Ocean's murderous tsunami Rose up one hundred feet into the sky A quarter of a million lives it took A lost ice cream in Troon made a child cry Vesuvius buried Pompeii with its lava A city frozen in its pumice pall Marcus Vorenus broke a sandal strap While marching to subdue the tribes of Gaul Hurricane Katrina laid to waste Acres across America's rich land The McPhee family in Dunfermline Watched TV, hired a take-away as planned An Gorta Mór, great hunger, Ireland's scourge A million died, a million left that shore In Essex a fat English county squire Dined on a dish of pigeon and wild boar A plane falls from the sky, a man, a bird It's not our problem, happening elsewhere Assaulted on all sides from pleas for help We grow inured to it, and cease to care