Dorothy began to peel a banana for breakfast. Then she stopped. It was too ripe for her tummy, warning her off with a whiff of amyl acetate. I suggested we pretend to be multimillionaires and stick the banana to the wall with duct tape. She said no, so we continue as pensioners, like millionaires but with no banana on the wall.
We wealthy lust for absurdityto distract us for a moment
from cloying comfort.
What can you get for six million dollars:
1000 residential heat pumps,
200 solar roof arrays,
100 electric vehicles,
10 modest houses,
one homeless shelter,
a banana for lunch?
Lunch for this pensioner includes
toast but no banana.
Dorothy saves the bread bag to reuse,
remembering the problem of plastic
and the value of truth and beauty.
I forgot that all of it,
banana and duct tape,
toast and plastic,
truth and beauty,
ALL OF IT,
is absurdly priceless.
Remembering,
I am distracted for a moment
from cloying comfort.
P.S. I had the banana for supper.
Nothing wasted in the writing of this note.
P.P.S. the editor (myself) read this through a dozen times before noticing I had written peal when I meant peel. I am distracted for a moment by the absurdity of a banana ringing like a bell. Priceless.
*****************
COP 29 settles for 300 Billion per Year: Associated Press, November 23, 2024
Global Average Temperature Record: Berkeley Earth
I hear the reports of encampments, etc, etc, and the fact there just isn't money to solve the homelessness problem and then we move along to the reports of the amount of money being spent on...oh, I don't know, Taylor Swift concerts? and it makes me weep. What is wrong with our priorities anyway?!
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