One thing the hand of Time shall spare, For the grim Idiot at the gate Is deathless and eternal there.

"cattle and horses browsed around

derricks and pumps.

I braked the car when a mare and colt

wandered onto the road.

They stared at me, and I thought,

here is the past, looking at the present.

Then I remembered that grass will come up

when the wells are stuttering straws

in an empty bottle."

from Meeting on Asphalt

by Bert Alnon

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alta-oilsands-monitoring-1.5673433

The deal says no fieldwork is to be done on the main branch of the Athabasca River. That means the program won't fund monitoring downstream of the oilsands even as the province considers proposals to allow the water from oilsands tailings ponds to be released into the river.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alberta-nwt-chiefs-losing-faith-environment-monitoring-1.5674446

Subject line is from Archibald Lampman's "The City at the End of Things"