A breath that lasts a hundred years
in, out
takes little from the air
in, out
unless it makes new lungs
in, out
which then make two
in, out
and them two each
in, out
then look up what exponential means
in, out
as the air runs out
in, out.
“The world population has almost tripled in my lifetime and, despite scientific assurances, doesn’t look like it’s abating any time soon. It makes you feel so small and powerless to make any kind of difference other than not adding to the problem. I never made a conscious choice not to have children – the thought of having them never even occurred to me – and the older I’ve become, the more grateful I am for that. As a species we’re doing a pretty lousy job of looking after this planet.”
With an MA in Fine Art, Helen Finney spent her adult life working as a fine artist in South Wales. Having been unexpectedly stuck in Thailand during the pandemic, she turned to her second love – writing. Still there several years on, her work has been published in Ink, Sweat and Tears, Poetry Wales, Dreich Mag, Morecambe Poetry Festival Anthology I & II, Gyroscope Review and elsewhere. Her fourth collection was released last summer and a collection entitled ‘Positively Childless’ should be available later this year.