The Weeping Willow – A Poem About Nature and Trees

The forests and fields are fading,
Replaced by cookie cutter houses and pleasure centers.
Quick! Get a glimpse of the soil
As it’s tilled one last time,
Before it’s fruit is forever sealed beneath concrete,
Whose paved arms don’t let us sink in,
But stand firm and hard at our feet.
We used to run around barefoot in the summer breeze,
The rich, soft earth padding our steps.
But we’ve cut you off,
And now our royal pavements offer no comfort –
they dash and scrape our souls
As our bare feet walk upon them.

The forests where we once watched birds
And observed animals, mesmerized by their beauty,
Are now parking lots littered with empty paper bags
And shopping carts blowing with the breeze.
We’ve damned up rivers, drained the land,
And raped Mother Nature for every last penny –
Turned the purest Vestal Virgin into a dirty slut.

Where will we take our sons and daughters
To teach them about life?
No, not humanity, but life as a whole.
I know it may come as a shock,
But we’re not the only species on this planet.
What museum could ever compare
To the beauty of nature’s gallery,
Showcasing the work of the greatest artist
The world will ever know,
Whose palette holds new mysteries everyday
And who redefines beauty each and every second,
Whose masterpieces include works such as
“The Sunrise”, “The Sunset”, “The Moon”, and “The Stars”?

We give a damn about our domestic animals,
Who we use as accessories to lives filled with void –
That is as long as we can control them
And they submit to our slavery.
But as Fido gets upgraded outfits,
The rest of his kind are driven deeper
Into seclusion and find themselves without homes.
Yet, we’re quick to scream, “Call animal services”
As soon as they start showing up in our cities
Because they’ve got nowhere else to go.

We’re now finishing up
What we did to Native Americans all those years ago,
Driving out anything that reminds us we’re not in control
And trying to tame the untamable,
Driving beauty out to the Pacific sea,
While we replace it with selfishness and greed.
We designate reservations for nature,
Assign it an acre and boxed in patch of land
And make sure to conform it to our demands.

It’s cool to not eat meat
And believe hunting is for insensitive, feeble minds.
But hunting is a drop of water
Compared to the endless sea of injustice that materialism
Lashes and strikes out against nature everyday.
So if all you’re going to do is complain
About the travesty of eating what was meant to be eaten –
Get out of the way.

Our mountains are crumbling.
Our rivers drying up or polluted with waste.
Forests are growing thinner every year,
And it’s getting harder and harder to not
See our cities out the other side.
And while man sits pondering
His next quantum leap,
The willow sags over her pool of tears,
Hiding her downcast eyes with her branches, and weeps.

 

-Poem Written by Justin Farley

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photo credit: Food Stories via photopin cc