The prize is right

I've won first prize in a poetry competition. It was over at UDreamOfJanie. The challenge was to write a poem ending with the lines "Oh how I long to long for the green, green hills of Earth. The prize is a guest post on the blog, so now I've got to come up with a suitable topic. Anyway, here's the winning poem.


When Man first felled and burned the trees, I began my rise.
Then coal was king, and chimneys belched
More carbon to the skies.
Along came petrol engines,
And how emissions grew.
(Solar power was in the dark,
And windmills spoiled the view.)

The polar ice-caps melted in a great freshwater dump,
The Gulf Stream slowed and halted as it stopped the saline pump.
The rise in temperature was paused
And people thought they’d freeze,
Then tons of melting methane pushed it up by ten degrees.

And now, with agriculture gone,
And arid deserts burning,
My happiness is incomplete,
I still can feel a yearning.
Though I sit triumphant
As the world regrets my birth
Oh how I long to long
For the green, green hills of Earth.