you drink through a straw for the first time,
a new skill! Joy in watching.
A paper straw, we’re environmental folk.
I hope, when you grow up,
the heat waves and climate change
do not overwhelm
joyful learning.
I hope other species still share
joys with their young.
Your first day of childcare
was 45 degrees, too hot.
Wild horses died in the deserts.
You met your first horses at the beach cafe today,
then you learnt to use a straw,
sipping clean water, our fortune.
Perhaps your brain
will create neurons for sucking straws interlinked with thoughts of horses,
ignorant at this age
that we and the beach horses
are blessed to have homes away from heat.
Thrilling at every joyful new experience,
protected from apocalyptic events:
fights over water, mass coral death.
There were once thylacines,
I never knew them.
Joy remains for me, as it will for you.
I hope
