ISSIA Podcast EP9: A Life I've Come to Miss

A Life I've Come to Miss paints a regretful picture of what the world would be like should air pollution not be addressed. As a wake up call to the importance of environmental issues, the discussion moves beyond the issue of air pollution to include how society turns away from the drastic situation of the environment as a whole. Listen to Katie Warren (author), Mansie Tam and Joy Chen discuss the poem "A Life I've Come to Miss"!

A Life I’ve Come to Miss By Katie Warren

I’ve come to miss the sunlight, pouring down above Like a beacon of life, clear skies and sweet sighs of relief Free of the smoke and seas of grey you’d come to say Had become ordinary in this day and age Extraordinarily scary as life without grey and green and machines which ‘clean’ It seemed like only a dream, not the reality in which we live in

I’ve come to miss running down the fields Playing hide and seek beneath the sea above my head When friends became screens of text in between Telling me I could no longer leave the confines of my home A desolate biome; the ghost of a city I used to know And I know I’m not alone in thinking so, reflected 7 million fold

I’ve come to miss the colors of the Earth that I’d see A serenity to be revered, an imitation of art itself As spirits wander the streets, leaving trails behind them Life seems to thin, within you and within me Within everyone and everything, I only see the withering It’s slow and painful; I don’t want that to be the case

I’ve come to miss the feeling of being able to breathe My lifespan has been tied to yet another machine, pressing clean air Into my body, like a balloon swelling and swelling until My lungs burst and wilt like the trees outside my window I no longer leave my room, bed-ridden and sickly People mourn for my leave; 18 days, they said, I’d finally be relieved

I’ve come to miss the life I’d known as a kid Free and full of bliss, rid of the anxiety I now live with

That we’d push past the tipping point, voices hoarse Screaming for a force to come down and release us Grieving for what’s been lost, chests heaving exhaust And what does it cost us to turn a blind eye to the problem? Nothing, no, nothing at all except the time we have left to solve it

The world is ending, or perhaps a fragment of it Shrouded in mystery, lamented by many “Who could have done this? Who is to blame?” They call the names, old and the same Passing guilt and fear over and over again Watching lights burn out, becoming hazes of grey Will I live to see the day everything is okay?

And so before I depart, let us try and restart With connection comes change and with change Comes a new hope that I wish to impart Hand in hand, we carve ourselves a path To a day where we can Breathe freely See clearly Sigh with relief and it goes without saying Each and every step counts towards something Big or small, better than nothing at all So look up with hope to the sliver of skylight We will get through the plight, the night, with the future within sight