A NEW WORRY

                                                         
                                                          LIX

The media like to frighten us
On a wide subject range:
Snowball earth - Greenhouse earth -
Global warming - climate change.

The more they try to scare us
The more blase we become
So another worry must be found
To which we might succumb.

They've now come up with something else
To make our lives more fraught:
A coronal mass ejection -
A CME for short.

Billions of tons of plasma
Thrown off by the sun
Could wreck our power stations -
Every single one.

The more advanced the country -
The more sophisticated the technology
The more destructive and devastating
A solar storm would be.

If a flare should strike us
How many cities would survive
Sans computers - internet - communications?
Only primitive societies would thrive.

Is there a silver lining
To this power-cut cloud?
Well, the Milky Way will be brilliant
And the Aurorae more colourfully endowed.

April 2009

EVEN DOCTOR SPOCK GOT IT WRONG

                                               LVIII

Bringing up children is not easy
You are certain to do something wrong.
You're either too strict or too lenient,
To the P.M.  Club very few belong

(P.M. - Perfect Mother )

If you smack a child when he's naughty
You can damage his psyche for ever.
Patient explanation is what you need,
But violence - no never, never.

If he turns out wild and unruly
His mother must be to blame.
Did you give enough love and affection?
You shouted?  Tch.  Tch.  What a shame.

And it really is no valid excuse
To say you did as you were told.
You must have done something wrong somewhere
Did you smack?  Did you nag?  Did you scold?

I'm glad I did not read a Spock book
Until it was far too late.
My children are sensible adults
And I certainly made many a mistake.

To J and C

(before smacking one's child became a criminal offence)