Get it over quick
Gorillas, whales and baby seals
Rhinos, Elephants and quail
Remnants in the undergrowth
We have blasted them to hell
Forests, land and water
Air, us and sea swell
A job that’s well worth doing
For the pleasure or the sell
Caged, tortured, maimed
Hunted, poked, impaled
Badgered to extinction
Even bugs are not doing well
Why take the time to do it slow
Why not get it over quick?
Put life out of its misery
Let’s kill the planet now
Don’t just leave it sick!
Opher 16.10.98
Sometimes I just despair at the madness. We are gaily going about our lives as if there is nothing wrong. As long as our daily existence is not affected we do not have to think about it. We are not looking into the future; at the plastic nightmare round the corner.
Yet there is a relentless catastrophe taking place like a slow-motion explosion. The world population is increasing alarmingly, the environment is being destroyed, animals are hunted, butchered and hounded to extinction, forests are being eradicated, pollution is accruing, the seas over-fished, and the climate is now changing.
Welcome to the Anthropocene Apocalypse.
Yet the greed and selfishness that are fuelling this relentless pulverisation in the name of greed, profit and progress shows no sign of abating.
There are occasions when I become so distressed that I think we should just blast the planet to hell and have done. A quick end would be better than this slow, drawn out agony.
Unless something radical is done on a global scale the wild-life of this planet is doomed. Their future is a misery. The cruelty is unimaginable.
I wrote this poem way back in 1998 in a fit of pique.