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Cortez the Killer - Stewardship

 

Photo by Ales Krivec on Unsplash

On these dog days
of a future summer,
on a future planet,
 after much deprivation and cruelty
ours is a molested nature,
that screams in agony in an iron trap
where the final wild tiger
bleeds to death 
as humans point their cameras and smile.

Will these few remaining animals be abused
exterminated, tortured
like all four-legged creatures
have been by this human plague
that inherits an empty, burning planet? 
Beautiful wild animals
stuffed in a museum 
devoted to affirming man-the-killer
in the shadow of a past that did not last?
A life built on sand 
built on greed and superfluity?
Bringing an end to the dream
That we can co-exist with the plurality of life
On this planet.
We bring universal death and the collapse of hope.

I know that is so.

 

 

 

 

🌷(5)

◄ Lament

BRITTLE BEAUTY ►

Comments

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John Marks

Thu 17th Aug 2023 17:05

Some few people - often dismissed as freaks, hippies, drop outs, tree-huggers etc - had the prescience to understand that humanity's seemingly endless rape of nature would lead, inexorably, to our time of fire, mass migration, starvation and war. One of these few was Neil Young.

"After The Goldrush"

Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and drummers drumming,
And the archer split the tree.

There was a fanfare blowing to the sun
That was floating on the breeze.

Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst through the sky.

There was a band playing in my head,
And I felt like getting high.

I was thinking about what a friend had said.
I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a friend had said.
I was hoping it was a lie.

Well, I dreamed I saw the silver space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun.
There were children crying and colors flying
All around the chosen ones.

All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.

Flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home.


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John Gilbert Ellis

Tue 15th Aug 2023 15:56

So very true, a grim but very good poem.

The human race doesn't have a clue how to stop itself destroying everything around it. Judge us on our track record.

What a killer (as Neil said).

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Graham Sherwood

Tue 15th Aug 2023 12:18

There’s only one Neil! Untidy brilliance personified. An endangered species if ever there was one.

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Stephen Gospage

Tue 15th Aug 2023 09:37

A fine poem, John.

Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

Sun 13th Aug 2023 06:23

Thank you John.

"A life built on sand
built on greed and superfluity?"

The sad, horrifying and frightening truth about our society.

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