House of cards

by CD Richards

I see a species standing at the brink,
that's claimed the crown, 'the kings of planet Earth';
we've subjugated nature (so we think)—
an outlook I can't help but view with mirth.

Destroying habitats to form backyards,
we pride ourselves on clever use of tools;
and build evanid houses out of cards,
but nature recognises us as fools.

For just as Jack discovered at the well,
our best laid plans can soon come tumbling down.
An eye-blink and it all can turn to Hell;
mankind will one day lose his thorny crown.

In economics we can find a clue,
from something called 'reversion to the mean';
all abberrations are a fleeting skew—
things must return to how they've always been.

We humans are anomalies, I fear;
an error nature never meant to be.
It seems we just don't really fit in here;
our misfit standing's our celebrity.

Insects may rule the world in years to come,
long after people's rule on Earth declines.
Perhaps they will observe man's total sum—
our card-deck houses, buried under vines.

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Today's word: evanid (adj.) short-lived, transitory, soon to be dissolved.

P.S. I've taken a sneak peek at the words for the next couple of days. The tone should be considerably brighter - promise!

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

Thanks for reading.

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A cheery bedtime rhyme for children

A chapter in the book A Potpourri of Poetic Curiosities

House of cards

by CD Richards

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