Displaced

Eveline Pye

I came home to this curve in the Clyde
to feel the ease of water passing by,
watch ships slowly slip away
swathed in comfort, safe in my skin,
bathed in the mutter of guttural words.

But the climate has changed, the river
swollen all winter, familiar smirr
replaced by torrents.
Drains overflow and drench the soil;
the rockery is dressed in dark green velvet.

When I bought this house, I never thought
to ask its elevation. I didn't
investigate topography, or worry
about thermal expansion in our oceans,
ice sheets melting in Antarctica.

Now, when I drag my reluctant eyes
across the latest flood maps;
my road is paint-spattered,
a dark blue stain spreading closer
— ink spilled on glossy paper.

No one knows how long I've got.
In twenty years, the sea will rise
another foot or maybe three.
I could live that long
but not here. I can't stay here.

The Science

I wrote this poem with the hope of engaging my local community, encouraging them to look at the rapidly changing flood maps for our area which are predicting much higher probabilities of flooding as a result of sea rise and global warming. I haven't gone into the science in any detail in the poem as I wanted it to be completely accessible.

The Poet

Eveline Pye is the only poet ever to be published in Significance, the joint magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Society. She was an invited poet at Bridges Conferences on mathematical poetry in Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Canada and Austria. Her collection, Smoke That Thunders, was published by Mariscat Press (2015) and, from it, the poem ‘Mosi-Oa-Tunya’ was chosen for the 20 Best Scottish Poems of that Year. Her second pamphlet, STEAM, is to be published by Red Squirrel and features poems on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Next poem: Heisenberg's uncertainty principle by Alicia Sometimes