---

“Change”, they say, “is constant,”

and they are right.

King Cnut, too (contrary to traditional readings),

realised it was impossible to hold back the tide.

History, of course, has also shown

that the climate changes –

we experience it on a daily basis in our own lives

and in the distant past

the Earth has experienced ice ages,

significant changes in sea levels

and global warming.

While humans have lived, they have responded

by attempting to live life best

while changing behaviours:

moving; altering diets; wearing different clothes;

developing adaptive technology; and the like.

The same will occur in the future –

and while humans exist,

it is optimal to enjoy

the beauty and splendour

of the World,

such an existence

is truly living

(it is not rocket science).

---

Douglas Colston – who finds himself approaching his mid-50s and living at the Sunshine Coast in Australia – has played in Ska bands, picked up university degrees, supported his parents during terminal illnesses, married his love, fathered two great children, had his inheritance embezzled, transitioned into Counselling as a vocation and experienced chronic mental and physical illnesses consequential to workplace harassment. Now, among other things, he is pursuing a PhD. As for his publishing history throughout 2022, his fiction, nonfiction and poetry has been published in traditional and online anthologies and journals including: POETiCA REViEW; Otherwise Engaged Literary and Arts Journal; Written Tales; Inlandia; The Graveyard Zine; The Antonym; Rue Scribe; Mercury Retrograde; The Seattle Star; Revue {R}évolution; Impspired; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; New Note Poetry; Red Door Magazine; and New World Writing.