While brushing my teeth
I stop to think of the Minister’s words
and I feel how lucky we are indeed
to have a Green Minister like him to tell us
not to be wasting water running it
while brushing our teeth.

And I wonder if he’s noticed
that it’s been pissing the rain for weeks
and the eco-warriors are up to their eyes in muck
in their flooded dugouts on the Hill of Tara.

But he says he is not in a position to go there
for he is afraid of getting his hands dirty
and he’ll have to go washing them all over again,
wasting everyone’s time and energy,
including his own.

Seamus Heaney thinks it’s a disgrace,
but sure nobody listens to him.

Thanks to John Walsh. This poem is from Chopping Wood with T.S Eliot, Publ. Salmon Poetry 2010.