This is a poem that I wrote about a week back, and then performed two nights ago at the Narellan Poetry Slam in Harry Hartog - and I came second! :D So I said I'd put it up. Here you go.
This world is a tortured place.
Tortured by us; and it’s hard to count the ways
In which we’ve managed to make it worse
Than it was - we’ve become this planet’s curse.
Whether it be plastic in the oceans, or smoke in the air,
Or things just dying - we seem to not care
About what’s happening around us, we shut our eyes
To the evidence that’s so clear, we believe the lies
That say it will sort itself out. We don’t need to worry.
The earth takes care of itself. Well I’m sorry,
But that might be true if we weren’t so good
At beating it within an inch of its life! You would
Think that we’d have more sense than to kill
The very thing that sustained us, but history will
Testify that this is clearly not the case.
There’s no greedier species than the human race.
And race it is, because we just can’t stop,
We have to go faster, we have to get to the top,
No matter the cost, no matter the pain,
It’s always about the little we can gain,
And we don’t really care what we do to get there.
But, if we can pause for just a moment, can you please tell me where
Do we go from here? What’s the plan?
Do we just use up what we have, and
Hike it off to the moon, or Mars, and use up those too?
Are we that parasitic? Is that really true?
Or is it possible for us to turn around
And heal this world? Heal this ground
That has grown us, and shaped us, and made
Us who we are. The hand that we’ve played
Are not the only cards we’ve been dealt.
We just think they’re never good enough, we’ve felt
That we’re worth more, and so we keep pushing for more power,
More strength, more of everything in this hour.
And the thing is, we are worth more.
But more doesn’t mean burning the floor
Just to get an inch ahead of the rest -
It’s about working with this planet that we’ve been blessed
With, not against it. Because as much as we think
That we are stronger than Nature, in a blink
We could disappear if we keep going this way.
That’s how strong she is. And we try to push her away.
But together, think of what we could do -
Rather than torture, remember that it takes two.
We were given a gift, but instead we destroyed.
But if we stopped - if we employed
Even a modicum of the brains that we’ve been given,
And did something good. Maybe then, we’d be living
Well.