Extinction

The Past

A pristine blue sky
Mirrored agrarian lives 
Living with nature.

Their work was always difficult
But that never seemed to matter.
Their crops were all that counted most:
Enough to feed the family
In good times as well as the bad 
Everyone loved their plot of land.
They knew it meant their survival
So the hard work was the trade-off. 
What developed was mutual
Respect: an interconnection
Whereby one affects the other;
But then one day a cloud appeared:
A black, menacing, looming cloud   
Foretelling future misfortune.

The Present

The industrial
Revolution dawned under
This foreboding cloud.

Machines began to do the work 
That man and beasts for eons had
Performed with blood, sweat and tears.
His work was easier to do
But soon discovered that he had 
Become an industrial slave.
A mere symbiotic creature:
His nature was parasitic.
He no longer had in himself
The oneness and independence
That he had always called his own.  
He’d become fat and ignorant 
Living by his own destructive
Philosophy: hedonism.

The future

The sky is poisoned
As well as the land and the seas.
The earth was dying.

Through Mans continuous neglect
The earth became terminally
Ill. It was no longer able  
To sustain the needs of Mankind.
War broke out all over the globe
Millions killed, many more had starved
To death; billions soon will follow
Billions more after that. The stench
Of rotting flesh has overwhelmed
Those able to live another
Hopeless day, gasped the putrid air
Futile murmurings continued  
Until silenced by the guns
The ultimate judicature. 

An eerie silence
Prevailed and all that was heard
Was screeching vultures.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2010

Poem

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Brown Avatar
June 10, 2010 at 11:16 AM
It was a pleasure to read your poetry this morning Albert. Wishing you another day filled with inspiration. Love, Carol
Nutter Avatar
June 9, 2010 at 7:23 PM
A dark write, with a darker outcome for mankind and the earth. I like it dark and I'm afraid this write is to close to our future. It's odd I just posted a new write "Firestorms" along the same thought.
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