One of the 185,000 retirees in the multi-billion-dollar Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

Let the cash flow into my spacious Toronto duplex,

maybe not for many more generations. That’s not my issue.

Give free financial reign to men in dark suits and crisp shirts

to unleash global opportunities in 35 currencies across 50 countries.

Long-term growth might be negated by melting ice caps, typhoons, floods and fires.

It still requires a forward-looking (just so far), equity-heavy, disciplined approach

and toxic planes to glide above my gilded stocks,

adjustable wing-backed chair and 60-inch TV.

For what it’s worth, I care about the environment.

I taught geography for decades.

Now, my world has dwindled to these plush four walls

and the communal garden a grateful refugee tends.

Where, in the dog days of summer my wife sits and seethes with dementia.

I understand her fury and why our children don’t drop by.

Miscarriages, dysfunctional synapses, memory loss. That’s life.

Too late for me to be concerned about damaging pollution.

But there’s time to monitor the dip and rise of shares,

as another fleeting day fades. It’s finally snowing; a sullied flurry, light as a feather.