All my friends are
anxious, messed up
and depressed over
some atrocity.

Not sure if it’s the
capitalist structure,
or if it’s something
in the air –
perhaps the cease
of civilisation
we always feared.

I mean the seas
are surely rising
and the forest
fires rage.

My friend
cried watching the
16-year-old climate
activist from
Sweden today.

He said he’s not
sure why, but he
just can’t feel
okay.

But I guess it’s
got its perks,
all this pessimism,
every day’s an
existential crisis,
so we might as
well do what
we believe in.

So we’ll block
the streets and
sing to the beat,
demanding change
from the archaic
political systems that
leave us contemplating
human extinction.

Connor Amor-Bendall is a New Zealand-born journalist and artist who is based in Melbourne. She has a keen interest in politics, poetry and pastries.