Poetry – There was a time – a poem about the plastic universe we are creating with our teeming billions.

IMG_2537

There was a time

Locked within our cities far away from the natural world we live a life of safety and synthetic joy. Our whims catered for, our dreams indulged, we are saturated in control.

Our actions are restrained.

Yet how could it be otherwise?

There are now seven billion of us. We have swamped the world like a bacterial scum that erodes all it touches. Trees fall, nature flees, and animals are consumed. Behind us the machine creates the plastic comfort and ease.

Yet no more do we taste the free air and live as brightly. This is the age of health and safety, longevity, and false fulfilment.

This is the plastic, sterile bowels of existence.

There was a time.

 

There was a time when we ran free,

To pit our wits

And use our ingenuity;

Free of man-made laws,

Of household chores and social mores –

A child in the wild.

 

Exultant on the trails of beasts

Imagining the feasts

Full of the adrenalin of the hunt

The brotherhood and trust

Unfettered –

With unbridled lust.

 

Free in the elements –

Every breeze is tasted,

All nuance noted,

Every caress relished,

Every flavour promoted.

 

Overpowered by the desire for comfort

Security and ease.

The love of many children

Has brought us to our knees.

With seven billion progeny

We are no longer roaming free.

The breeze is tainted

Each caress a travesty.

 

Secure in our comfort

We’ve lost our sanity.

 

Opher 31.12.2015