Energy Shortage: A Poem by Doris Lueth Stengel

Energy shortage!
God smiled and sighed a bit
at man's puny, uncreative mind.
Then He proceeded to stoke a fire
under a long benign mountain
(named for a saint yet!)
and as it rumbled,
men muttered and uttered calculations
and chose to disbelieve
and poke, and prod, and picnic,
until with the power of ten hydrogen bombs
and smoke greater than all the smokestacks ever made

SHE BLEW

and men fled, and men prayed, and some men died,
and the heavens rained ashes,
and the forest fell flat,
and the rivers changed course
And God said,
"That will give them something to think about."
as he brushed the ash from his toes.

– Doris Lueth Stengel