(Photo: Kakapo, a critically endangered flightless parrot native to New Zealand. Courtesy Shellie, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
When the birds are gone
Will we care ?
Will we sit outside
And mourn the quiet ?
Will there be
A sense of loss ?
Of missing beauty ?
Of Nature diminished ?
Or will we merely
Go inside
And turn on the TV ?
When there are
No more animals
And we own the earth
What will we do ?
When the wind
Is no longer
Soft and warm
But a raging monster
Tearing off roofs
And whipping fire,
Will we curse Nature
Or ourselves ?
And, when the oceans die
And we own
The stinking cesspool
And the earth
Is a giant landfill,
Where will we go ?
__
Mary de La Valette
July 2015
