ENVIRONMENTAL Poem: Paradise Broken, by Anne Kelly

A plane touched down in paradise found
Amid sun, soft sand, and blue seas
Beauty untold, or so that’s what they sold
On that Eden that came with a fee

But beaches once white are now marred by the sight
Of humanity’s souring touch
Endless things that will stay, and never decay
As apathy tightens its clutch

Water so clear, and little to fear
Look down amidst sea life and grass
A bottle floats by, carried gently by tides
And paradise crumbles to ash

The ocean now warming emits a soft warning
But the cries become lost to the sounds
Of money and power, of greed from the cowards
As they shrug and straighten their crowns

Coral now bleached can no longer beseech
The help of the few who may care
What good is their fight, against money and might
And the knowledge that time has run bare

So when a plane took off from paradise lost
It carried down the runway of fate
A new recognition, a silent admission
That it already might be too late

The curtain drawn back in quiet attack
Showed an Eden now covered in rust
Humanity will cry when the garden does die
Leaving only but shadows and dust

But the mighty won’t care as they stand there
Burning dreams once hoarded like tokens
They’ll sit on their thrones, surrounded by bones
Looking out over paradise broken