The effect of our greed
On the brown Middle East
Might very well be
Of a greenhouse indeed.
But for Europe, at least,
Which is naturally green,
Far from teak trees
And tropical beasts
The only result
Can be desert and drought.
For such is the cord
Between nature and man
That even a word
Cause catastrophe can.
And, though in the West
The pagans now reign,
With the rain in arrest
And the desert unchained
The time will have come
For stony Islam.
Jerusalem
29 May 1992