[Susan McLean]

Kronos Eats His Children

Kronos rules a golden age.
AI fulfills his every whim.
He fracks to fuel his leverage.
He won't let regulations trim
his profits or his privilege.

Kronos drives an SUV:
it's comfortable; he needs his room.
When there's a place he wants to be,
his private jet can save him time,
and time is money, naturally.

One can't eat money, though, so when
the icecaps melt, the oceans warm,
droughts, floods, and hurricanes pile on,
and all the crops dry up or drown,
his kids will find he's eaten them.

Revisions:
S1L3 "won't" was "can't"
S3L5 "kids will" was "children"

[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Susan—

Nice allegory for corporate greed. The myth and the famous paintings in the Prado show Time devouring its offspring. I wondered if you chose the spelling of Kronos to echo the multi-national corporation (now merged with Ultimate Software).

I was a bit confused by “leverage” in S1L3. Do you mean it as “money for financing” or as “coercion to exercise power?” Is the fracked fuel literal or metaphorical?

The title is something of a spoiler alert. Don’t you want to surprise us with the last line?

The rhyme progressively falls apart in S2 and S3. Was this deliberate in order to suggest the melting icecaps and increasing chaos?

Glenn

[Susan McLean]

Glenn, thanks for responding. I chose "Kronos" (the Greek name for the god) rather than the better-known Latin name "Saturn" because I wanted to evoke the common confusion of Kronos with Chronos (Time). I was not trying to suggest any particular corporation name, just the role of powerful corporations and politicians in promoting fossil fuel consumption and global warming. I used "leverage" for its double association with money and power. I don't actually mean for the last line to be a surprise. The main myth associated with Kronos is that of his eating his children. I did intend to start with a mix of slant and true rhymes and then end with all slants to show the progress of chaos.

Susan

[Richard G]

Hi Susan,
enjoyed up until the final line, and there I got lost.

Are his children us, the consumers/users of these corporations?
If we've already been eaten, where's the drama in the conclusion?
I wonder if the myth is more hindrance than help here as this Kronos doesn't seem to fear being supplanted?

Should S1/L3 be 'He won't' rather than 'can't'?

RG

[Susan McLean]

Richard, I took your suggestion for S1L3. By fighting regulation, Kronos is showing his fear of being supplanted/controlled. I am imagining a future in which Kronos's actual descendants (along with everyone else) will starve because of his actions and will realize that he is the one whose greed is now killing them.

Susan

[Richard G]

Hi Susan.

will starve because of his actions and will realize that he is the one whose greed is now killing them.
Don't they know this already? The idea that he'd view his them as resources to be consumed can't be that much of a surprise, surely? What kind of education did his money buy them? That said, the final verse has a ring of prophecy, it just missing the 'will find' (for me.)

RG

[Susan McLean]

Richard, I have changed "children" to "kids will" to make it more clearly future tense. I think most of the children of the corporate heads lead a cushy enough life that they probably don't think too hard about the consequences of maximizing profit while destroying the environment.

Susan

[Richard G]

Hi Susan.
Better for the 'will', I think. Feels starker somehow.

Out of curiosity, were you tempted by a second verse that began with something like
He stuffs his kids in private schools
his lawyers clean up every mess
...
?

RG.

[David Callin]

Hi Susan. This works well. I think I got your intended reading of the last line the first time around, but I could be flattering myself.

Cheers

David