Greedy Fools

Greedy Fools

If not for what we “human beings” have done,
The air today would be as fresh as that
Which humans breathed a thousand years ago.
The waters would be just as pure as then
And all the soils would be as free of taint
As when a beggar could be called a saint.
 
But now a beggar is a “bum”—no more—
Reviled as useless, hardly fit to live.
The soils are poisoned and infertile—dead.
The streams and lakes and oceans too are filled
With toxins, sludge and floating plastic waste.
The air is fouled and bears an acrid taste.

The myriad stars of night are seen no more,
As cities spread their squalor, glare and haze.
The myriad species melt away like snows
And continents are cleared of humans too.
And this is "progress", hailed and taught in schools—
In nations led by greedy, grabbing fools.

2018 November 17th, Sat.
Brooklyn, New York