Billions
Billions of eggs on the conveyor belt waiting to be slotted.
Billions of sheep standing in line waiting to be garrotted.
Billions of babies in billions of arms smiling up at mum.
Billions of toilets being flushed, creating oceans of scum.
Billions of acres cleared today in order to fill many a gut.
Billions of calves and goats waiting for throats to be cut.
Billions of trees will hit the ground as a billion acres are cleared.
Billions of teeth will chew today as a billion steaks are seared.
Billions of houses are being built to house billions of people.
Billions of prayers rise from mosque, synagogue and steeple.
Billions of insects die today as billions of fields are sprayed.
Billions of swifts have nothing to eat as survival chances fade.
Billions of years of life are being threatened by global warming
Billions of businessmen continue to simply ignore the warning.
Billions of tons of methane are farted from billions of cows.
While billions of politicians arrogantly take their bows.
Billions of reasons, billions of deaths, billions in agony,
While billions of stupid trinkets are sold to you and me!
There are a billion good reasons for us to change our way –
Perhaps reduce the number of eggs we fertilise today!
Opher – 21.8.2019
I woke up this morning with this poem bouncing round my head. There were hundreds of lines but I could only remember some.
Everything has an effect.
Every mouth has to be fed.
For every new human, animals die and trees are felled.
A finite planet has finite resources and space.
8 billion people require a lot of land.
8 billion people kill a lot of creatures – just by existing.
5 billion years of evolution created a rich sustaining ecosystem
A few centuries of human greed can destroy trillions of lives and bring an end to the all that miraculous evolution.
All life is remarkable.
All life should be respected and cherished.
We share this planet with the most amazing plants and creatures.
Our numbers are destroying life at an alarming rate.
We are a catastrophe.
It is time we took action to reduce our numbers.