A single tree
What is a single tree worth?
A tiny part of the Amazon?
What is a human life worth?
One speck of dust on an ’orizon?
Tree or human, cut them down.
You can. Then you can see the diff’rence.
We will give them both a crown
And change the world by their dis’pearance.
Yes, infinitesimally
For the trees in masses do us good,
Yes, but what about singly?
Why, hell, are you saying they’re just wood?
Mankind, and for sure I’m one,
In huge abstract numbers do us harm,
And only when he has gone
Will nature re-cover land and farm.
Any other life could see
Man’s growth as a covid viral sore
Spreading inexorably
Until all the green land is no more.
And what of the plastic sea?
Grey heron swallowing his white bag.
Something else that most won’t see
Until forced themselves to choke and gag.
© RM Meyer
Winswell Water, December 2020 and January 2021