I watch the city lights disappear as dawn approaches,

Sound from the great machine grows louder,

Blue sky turns grey as clouds of noxious fumes rise up.

Stifling exhaust filled streets bulge with work-bound commuters,

Concrete structures obscure the view,

As motorways slice through the boiling fumes,

Linking one smoke screen to another.

 

I pass a chimney stack spewing its deadly gift, and wonder.

 

Rivers running low expose truth,

A shameful scene of human waste that threatens all.

Some rivers still team with life,

Others are too late,

Chemically diseased and stagnant black,

Flowing lifeless to the sea,

To mingle with the oil film that spreads across its surface,

Creating colours and death discordant with nature.

 

I pass an estuary flowing its deadly gift, and wonder.

 

I watch the city lights come on one by one,

I see rivers of steel run dry.

Noise from the great machine slowly fades.

I look to the sky and riverbed and ask,

How much?  How long?