The Moment
The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
Photo by Tyler Veeman on Unsplash
This poem profoundly reminded me that we are visitors on this planet and were once assigned the role of stewardship, which we have greedily and ignorantly abused. So…..we are now reaping what we have sowed in terms of abusing resources for selfish gain and claiming ownership to that which is a gift. And we will have many more painful lessons to learn before we surrender and apologize to Mother Nature and acknowledge that we are NOT the superior race of beings in the Universe!
The 4-“P’s” of inequality and E-air-thly destruction are: private property & personal profit.
The young children with their protest signage for the years when gathering was allowed, showed they understood; alas their adult generation didn’t.
System change, not climate change.
good thought John