Cancerous tumour
Growth visible
Consuming everything.
Once
Healthy green
From outer space
Transformed
Sickly diseased brown
Scarring the land.
Islands of floating waste
Litter the high seas
Washing ashore
With little consequences
For those responsible.
Very air
We breathe
Grotesque yellow haze
Physically taste and see
Once odourless and clear
Burning hydrocarbons
For heating and cooking.
Like the canary
In a coal mine
Various wildlife species
Dead and extinct
With global warming.
Destroying the lungs
Humanity's haste
For the perfect view
Wetlands become
Concrete-steel canyons.
Still
Culture of denial
Thrives and grows
Highest level
Willfully ignorant.
What price
Do we willingly pay
Destroying this planet
In our greed?
Remember
Extinction is forever.
Although
Planet will revive
With enough time
Without us.
Therisa © 2018
Author’s note: A poem for Poets United’s midweek motif writing prompt: wilderness.
