The storm clouds gather

To rain on your parade

I make the warmer winters cry

And watch your summers fade.

I wander lonely ‘cross the skies

Weepin’ o’er vale and hill

Sheddin’ bitter, acid tears

O’er (your) dark, satanic mills.

And will the weather change?

And do you ever learn?

From oil spills in the oceans

These fossil fuels you burn

Your nuclear explosions

Your perma-CFCS

‘Tis you who calls me thus

Just call me stratocumulus!

I flood your farms and villages

Kill crops and claim your land

I harm your homes and businesses

Lay waste to all your plans.

I ruin (your) goods and livelihoods

Diss dykes and damn your dams

I decimate the coastlines too –

Your kingdom built from sand.

I free the rivers, stream n’ lakes

And cause these caustic seas to rise

I give life yet I also take –

Part-payment for Antarctic skies.

And will you ever change?

And do you even try?

As profits from palm olive groves

Ensure whole forests die

Your multi-corporations

Your third-world enterprise

‘Tis you who calls me thus

They call me stratocumulus!

And when I’m in a violent mood

You’d better run for cover s

I’ll shoot sheet lightnin’ thru’ your ‘hood

As peals of unseen thunder boom

For I’m a vengeful, wrathful spirit

Brimful of your wayward ways

And when I finally reach my limit

Noah’s Ark won’t save the day

Paul Stephenson,

South Shields