I have spat on every single blade of grass
And I have tromped around in my galoshes
On every single tad-pole because I have forgotten to
Respect my mother:
The earth.

I am too busy dreaming of
Diamonds and golden earrings,
And paying for my jewels with
Blood money to realize
That the earth is crying
Through it’s clogged pores.

I’ve made its acne through
My greed
My need
My materialistic consumerism
And disdain,
Because I have not learned
To revere what is not mine.

We haven’t learned.
Because nobody cares
At all
Anymore.

Nobody can hear the funeral dirges
Being played when
An individual picks out a sparkling diamond.

Instead, we are too busy filling our ears with
Auto-tuned sounds and jingles.

We have forgotten the ancient stories of
Demeter and Persephone,
Because our Consumer
God is better.

We no longer care that each
American baby makes one ton of garbage of year,
Or that we make enough plastic film a year to
Shrink wrap Texas.

Statistics will never stop us
Until there is nothing more to
Buy.

We pollute and
Commute our materials so that we can
Dilute another’s way of thinking that the
Pursuit of mass material consumerism is
Wrong.

We help you want more things,
So we send you junk mail,
Because we know that the average American will spend
8 months of his or her life opening up
Our advertisements.

I am a murderer.
An eradicator of the earth through my
Carelessness.

I have forgotten how to cry
For the trees
And the leaves that are being shredded
At a rate of 150 acres a minute
In the Amazon.

Perhaps, we are all killers,
Because we have all consumed too much.

Perhaps, we all have forgotten to hear
The laments of the earth as its veins are
Ripped out with pickaxes.

I have spat on every single blade of grass
And I have tromped around in my galoshes
On every single tad-pole because I have forgotten to
Respect my mother:
The earth.

But I am determined to learn from my mistakes
By becoming aware.