The Road Not Spared
A golden sun once beamed over a clear blue sky,
Birds once chirped joyously in stoic, mighty oaks,
Salmon once swam freely through vast oceans, and
Mist and mystery once covered swaths of greenery, leaving forests cloaked.
Now, that world is no more.
Now, black banks
Roll over barren hills, and
Bring despair to a rotting land.
Proud redwood forests,
Strong enough to thrive for millennia,
Decimated in seconds, helpless in the face of human greed
The sacred silence of their realm shredded
Their screams of anguish drowned out by the
Cacophony of loud music, malicious machinery,
Like sharp metal knives ripping open a soft sheep’s coat.
Wise old giants murdered by the young and foolish.
Serene, clear lakes,
Disturbed only by the tongue
Of a graceful gazelle,
Causing small, beautiful ripples,
Now destroyed
By the dumping of filthy sludge
Coating fish in a new
Black skin, causing suffocation
Slowly bright light
Leaves now dull eyes.
While a few voices half heartedly mumble for change,
The masses enthusiastically continue
To brutally attack our one, universal mother,
Despite knowing that they owe her everything
Leaving her bruised and broken on the ground,
Blood gushing from her deep, jagged wounds,
Only to then be raped by her own children,
Yet still providing us with life and sustenance,
Her love for her monsters perennial.
Your nation finds pride in national birds, plants, flowers,
And yet you
Part of the supposed “most civilized, intelligent species”
Could, in reality, simply not care
About the outcome of this brutality
And its effect on our future.
The golden sun hidden by black smoke,
The birds choking on their own song, lungs filled with poison
The salmon lying belly-up in the water,
The mist and mystery of the forests replaced with murder and misery.
Deforestation, destruction, devastation,
The Earth screams with pain,
Yet we turn a blind eye,
Forgetting to cry,
As our Earth screams again.
