THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
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| http://showyourhope.com/2012/02/19/the-elephant-in-the-room/ |
Everyone is talking about it.
The room is getting crowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Friends enough, things galore, but little space.
How did we end up in this cramped state?
The room is getting more crowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Wells are drying up, fossil fuels depleted.
Will we be able to live as we used to,
to afford the heating in winter,
to pay for petrol and power,
to keep the machines and gadgets running?
To run those of all of us all at once?
The room is getting overcrowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Pollution hits the waters and soils.
It has turned the fresh ozone of morning
into a mourning over climate change.
Forests, the lungs of lands, are being felled,
fields transferred from food to transport.
What are we blithely to breathe: the carbon?
What are we eager to eat: the fuel?
What are we destined to drink: the sewage?
Species are in danger of dying out,
plants and animals vanish from the Earth,
plagues and enemies take their place.
But the lavish spenders go on shopping
and driving and flying and producing
heaps of dirt and garbage in all corners.
The room is getting more overcrowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Rats and rabbits are multiplying.
Mice and pigeons are multiplying.
Human beings too are multiplying,
adding and adding and adding
their sapient genes to the common lot.
Some of them have indeed no offspring.
Others raise only one child:
"It's a girl. Congratulations!"
Some of them raise a second child
and maintain their equilibrium:
"It's a boy. Congratulations!"
Other women have a third child
and other men have a third child.
It's a borderline case, three together:
there may be a couple with one instead.
Some human females take four children
and some human males take four children.
It's two bodies out of balance,
where no childless couple relates to them.
Other females take five children
and other males take five children.
Could all those in the room do likewise?
Where are their sibs with only one child?
Some females take six or more children
and some males take six or more children.
Could all those in the room do likewise?
Where are their sibs without progeny?
Two, ten, a hundred, a thousand,
a million, ten million, a billion.
It's a growing crowd. Ten billion soon!
There is an elephant in the room.
No-one is talking about it.
The room is getting crowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Friends enough, things galore, but little space.
How did we end up in this cramped state?
The room is getting more crowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Wells are drying up, fossil fuels depleted.
Will we be able to live as we used to,
to afford the heating in winter,
to pay for petrol and power,
to keep the machines and gadgets running?
To run those of all of us all at once?
The room is getting overcrowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Pollution hits the waters and soils.
It has turned the fresh ozone of morning
into a mourning over climate change.
Forests, the lungs of lands, are being felled,
fields transferred from food to transport.
What are we blithely to breathe: the carbon?
What are we eager to eat: the fuel?
What are we destined to drink: the sewage?
Species are in danger of dying out,
plants and animals vanish from the Earth,
plagues and enemies take their place.
But the lavish spenders go on shopping
and driving and flying and producing
heaps of dirt and garbage in all corners.
The room is getting more overcrowded.
Everyone is talking about it.
Rats and rabbits are multiplying.
Mice and pigeons are multiplying.
Human beings too are multiplying,
adding and adding and adding
their sapient genes to the common lot.
Some of them have indeed no offspring.
Others raise only one child:
"It's a girl. Congratulations!"
Some of them raise a second child
and maintain their equilibrium:
"It's a boy. Congratulations!"
Other women have a third child
and other men have a third child.
It's a borderline case, three together:
there may be a couple with one instead.
Some human females take four children
and some human males take four children.
It's two bodies out of balance,
where no childless couple relates to them.
Other females take five children
and other males take five children.
Could all those in the room do likewise?
Where are their sibs with only one child?
Some females take six or more children
and some males take six or more children.
Could all those in the room do likewise?
Where are their sibs without progeny?
Two, ten, a hundred, a thousand,
a million, ten million, a billion.
It's a growing crowd. Ten billion soon!
There is an elephant in the room.
No-one is talking about it.
Vincent van Mechelen
poem: http://in.home.xs4all.nl/Tong/ThL/Poems/Elephant.HTM
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