My lamp flickers but still gives light,
Once the whales gave blubber oil,
For soap and fuel from their toil.
Illumination so helpful through the night.
Oil saved the whales with earth’s black muck,
No longer the dangerous Nantucket sleighride,
Whale ships at harbor forever reside.
Petroleum and politics are now together stuck.
Again, the quest for resource control,
And, oil for greasing current events.
What is the latest rigmarole?
Heated words from the presidents,
Empty speeches to fill a dry hole,
With grumblings from self-made torments.
Francis Conlon is a retired and recovering teacher. For the past 20 years, he has worked as a seasonal river ranger and boat inspector at Yampa River State Park in northwest Colorado. He has published in the local Valley Voice and in Westward Quarterly. He currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.