There once was a maiden young and green
beautiful as she,
she was everything that none has ever been
kind hearted that she was
she shared her wealth just because
the birds and bees and flowers we see
corals, fishes and turtles of sea
the lions, tigers and deers alike
worms and blooms, everyone psyched
thankful, grateful, in harmony they lived
all together as one big family indeed.
Million years went by this way
until the apes decided to evolve one day
she stood witness and helped harness
the skills to dispel all darkness
with a honed mind from habilis to eructus
to sapiens, beings multiplied in surplus
emerged the modern men and women
with superiority solemnly unbidden.
Their fire, wheel and blades came first
civilisations flourished, expansively, unchecked
her peaceful, united little - big beings of old
ran, hid, or did everything told
Mother as she’d become to the old and new
she knew not how to contain this unfathomable advent
the new beings explored and grew
leaps and bounds unheard before;
child of hers that they always would be
Humankind as they came to be
she let them head the household in good faith
she crowned them, bejewelled them, until, they betrayed…
Encompassed in entirety of self satiating needs
Humankind went on a rogue spree
He hunted, cut, encroached and stole
He drove away his brothers and sisters from home;
He made them starve, homeless, endangered and extinct
until the suffering silent species begged to saintly Mother green.
But there she stood, beaten and bare
Stripped of her beauty that was once so rare
Her once abundant lush stream of hair
Lay tangled, dried, with none to care
Her soft, supple, enriching skin-
lay buried in harsh, dull concrete;
her blue, beautiful, beaming crown
lay burnt, damaged, with smoke and soot.
robbed of her riches
crippled in her crutches
she heaved, convulsed,
and wept with acid tears.
She weeped for the children lost
who were suffocated in plastic discards
She weeped for the children extinct
who were hunted and mercilessly marred
She weeped for her ragged ozone blanket
torn apart by savage hands without hearts
she sobbed in solemn helplessness
until there weren’t any tears left to spare.
She boiled and erupted with volcanic wrath
overwhelmed in despair she unleashed tsunamic spite
flared with fury she flooded their homes and crops
dissed by the disservice she dished new diseases
plagues, famines, earthquakes and draughts,
warfare, pestilence, hurricanes and floods,
She unleashed everything, with her every being;
To make them learn or perish, she’d hoped to accomplish
but alas! the ignorant inglorious indefatigable intrepids
Refused to relearn, regret or reform.
Disheartened she is, but deterred she’s not
for her best laid plans of vengeance await
force of nature exists in all of us,
She exists all around us.
The time is here
Ticking faster than ever.
Time to deploy the sacred Rs
Regret, Repent, Reform, Rebuild
(Review, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
The era of Redemption is born.
∎
