Sonnet to the Oil Derrick

Existentialist environmentalism in verse form

Along a busy Long Beach road I spy
An off-white derrick probing sandy soil,
Alone in boring, repetitious toil,
With many heedless drivers speeding by:


This ostrich plunges again, again, no pause,
His head a little ugly, worn, and old,
Relentless see-saw seeking fluid gold,
Mechanic slave to oil's now-failing cause:

Perhaps an alien in distant years
Will find a Mazarati, worthless, rusted,
And wonder why the Age of Gears

Relied on scanty fossil fuel stores,
And toward its own extinction wreckless sped,
At last to meet the fate of dinosaurs.