‘Isle of urgency’

Dear Minister,

What should I do?

My septic is crumbling

And I’m scared to use the loo –

It’s soon to go straight through

A situation with which I’m struggling

The groundwater’s already polluted

And the lagoon is full of it too –

Where it upwells, largely undiluted

…a sparkling blue toxic stew

I do wish that it wasn’t so sinister, Minister

The coral’s quickly dying

The science is clear, consequences severe

There’s no denying, it’s all rather terrifying

And it’s getting worse by the week –

Some shed a tear while others emerge crying

For it can come as a shock

And it is hard to take stock

A few want to blame it on the creek –

Perhaps not wanting to face their own septic leak

‘Cos even when times are a-‘dryin –

It continues its subterranean seep

It’s been a decade or three

Of decline and forewarning

And I’m not talking about global warming –

That it might have otherwise been well able to fight

But now it’s almost run out of time, we’d cutting it fine

Indeed, our health and well-being is also on the line

Need I highlight that sanitation is a human right?

And, it’s not hard to foresee –

Beyond the cascading loss of biodiversity

To the coming mourning, a grief of global degree

When this reef of bounty and beauty sublime

Has succumbed irreparably

And crumbled to slime

I don’t have the cash in my pocket or in train

To buy some solution

To my personal pollution

And then I’d have to fly it in by plane

Plus, it’d be a real bummer

To have to await a year or more for a plumber

It’s hard enough getting it pumped –

Into the ocean, raw, it’s still all dumped

With such little time left before a needless collapse

Please take heed and don’t let it lapse

It’s now an emergency

This isle of urgency

Ecosystems interwoven, there’s so much at stake

Your redress is behoven, You have the mandate

I’m sorry, this is one You cannot shake –

Your station means that action is indeed Yours to take

And please don’t try and pass the buck to NIRC

…for they’re not the State, don’t make that mistake

I will try to find some extra work

But there’s going to be a wait –

That’ll be protracted by freight

Leaving it to me, to us, only seals the reef’s fate

For so many are in a similar state

Please appreciate that My dignity lies with You –

And Our future too

Dear Minister,

With all Your authority

And all that You administer

Please tell me, Dear Minister

What should I do?

…I really need to use the loo

But before I do –

I need to know just where it is that You

Would like me to poo?

Perhaps now you might see

Why this ought to be

Your priority too?

By A Party Pooper

Norfolk Island