The oil billows up from the broken pipe day after day,
The live video feed as a TV picture inset on every news channel.
There’s no way to stop it. It goes on and on 80 days and counting.
I think of the fossil fuel smoke billowing from a billion other pipes.
The other billion pipes discharge ever so much more than the spill
And yet there’s no mention of that as an environmental disaster.
Our presence on earth is altering the biosphere.
The destruction of our habitat is accelerating.
Eventually the one point discharge in the Gulf of Mexico will be stanched.
The damage will have limits. It will not be the end of life on earth.
But the other billion points of discharge not seen as leaks will continue
Just like the deep water oil drilling business will not pause.
What is this creature the human being that creates such global pollution?
There are times when I feel alienated from my species.
Sometimes it seems that asphalt and garbage mounds are everywhere.
Our success that we keep doubling and re-doubling will be our downfall.
The earth is immense but it is finite.
The European expansion in the age of colonialism reached everywhere.
The American Imperialism that dominates the world today
Exploits every natural resource and all the workers of the world.
There are limits. The end really is near when there’s an endless war.
We don’t know how or when it will collapse and die
But there’s no doubt the doubling down leads to bankruptcy.
We hope a better world’s in birth.
