Paradise Lost

 Paradise Lost

The virus with its restrictions, 

have given us time,

………..time for reflection 

concerning matters, 

often pondered,

often squandered.

I’ve spent a chunk of my life, 

trying to help, 

instead of hinder, 

but now with my chapter quickly closing, 

I wonder if it mattered.

The Earth, 

and all its woes,

were once my concern, 

the cause of sleepless nights, and

troubled thoughts.

 I thought,

to make a difference, ….

and make my voice heard.

I wrote letters, and stood with others….

drove through the night, 

painted pictures to highlight… 

our plight.

Rain once filled with acid was

(somewhat)

conquered, but 

while trying to put out one fire,

              

          another was lit, 

and was quickly burning.

Spring came one year,

bird song….. 

strangely…. 

absent,

a reason for concern.

Rachel Carson let us know, that

chemicals were the problem,

for the silence, and birds 

falling from the sky, 

but we didn’t learn, 

and although we changed our habits,

           

              for a time, 

we simply solved the problem, 

               with something we could hide.

Genetically Modified Organisms,

did the job in silence, and

everything,

once again

                   went silent.

Birds,

robbed of food,

faded,

continue to fade,

                  from the sky.

Bees and insects, 

pollinators,

essential to our well being,

have become images on our devices, 

a history now told.

 

The chain has been broken, and

unknowingly,

                 we,

have set in motion,

our own demise.

Nature threatened, 

with few caring, 

and with generations now accepting,  

digital assurance, 

the reality.

But outside,

in a world abandoned,

everything is dying,

to make room for populations exploding.

Oceans poisoned,

fresh water polluted,

over fishing,

whales,

animals aquatic,

all dying. 

The air, that we breath,

life giving,

once cool, 

refreshing, 

               

and clean,

now polluted, 

heated by gases that fuel our needs, 

for more,

                   

and still more.

The atmosphere, 

is heating, 

the polar caps are melting, 

the oceans are rising,

storms are brewing, 

hopelessness 

has become our feelings.

Religions,

all the same,

not accepting blame, and

no help to check the rush,

stand with arms folded, and

shift the blame.

Our indifference to the problem, 

poor governance of this planet, 

will be our legacy,

while remnants of our existence, 

flung far out in space,

a digital history of a species, that

deserved no place 

in a world,

once described in a book thought Holy,

a garden filled with treasures,

keys to a paradise......

             

                                              lost.