Poetry – There is a war – a poem for the planet

Posted on by Opher

There is a war

There is a war going on. It is a war against nature. Pest and weed are being decimated. There is collateral damage.

A pest is a creature that we don’t happen to like. It wants to live. It eats our crops and lives on our land.

A weed is a plant we don’t like. It grows on our land. It takes nutrients and light from our crops. It makes our garden look untidy.

We have to eradicate anything that encroaches on ours.

We can take what we want but nothing should dare to intrude on what we have claimed as ours.

We wage war on it. With chemical poison and machine we slaughter in huge numbers. The bees, butterflies, frogs, newts, and toads are all collateral damage.

The invertebrate population has been decimated. 56% have gone. That’ll teach them! 10% of all wildernesses have been claimed by us in the last twenty years. We have laid waste to it all. It is now denuded, coffee plantation, palm oil or simply desolate.

There’s a war going on. We won’t be happy until we have beaten it all.

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There is a war

There is a war raging

Using chemical and machine,

Counting the casualties

In numbers astronomically obscene,

Laying waste the land,

Hunting the helpless in fantastic amounts,

Spraying poison indiscriminately –

Where profit is the key

And the only line that counts.

 

Opher 13.9.2016

 

6 thoughts on “Poetry – There is a war – a poem for the planet”

    1. Why thank you. I get the feeling that they are not universally popular but I like writing them and getting things off my chest.

  2. So sad. And now all the big corporations are merging stronger, like Bayer just bought Monsanto. Do you like Jackson Browne? I love the last verse of Before The Deluge, “Some of them were angry at the way the Earth was abused by the men who learned how to forge Her beauty into power. And they struggled to protect Her from them, only to be confused by the magnitude of the furry in the final hour.” Prophetic.

    1. Yes it’s still going in the wrong direction. Something needs doing.
      Yes I do like Jackson Browne – Lives in the Balance was great as well.

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