We Are Running Out of Time - Fauzia Agbonhin

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A futuristic look into our world if we continue to lack proper preservation practices. Fauzia Agbonhin infers that the world will become a wasteland rid of electricity and the electronics we hold onto so dearly. The poem places electronics that distract us from our environment under scrutiny. She explains that our earth is currently deteriorating at a slow rate and, sooner rather than later, this won’t be case. She refers to “the Man”— a slang phrase used to refer to the government or some authority in position of power— and infers that in this wasteland, governments will be fickle, “old”, and “stuffed” with too many problems on their plate and too little time to solve them. Wording this poem like a nursery rhyme is a nod to rhymes such as “Ring Around the Rosie” that critiqued world issues like the Great Plague of London in 1665.