CHILDHOOD

 

(Part #1 of the "Us vs Mother Earth" poem trilogy.)

Our ancestors made this world beautiful,

their magnum opus, 

corseted her to man's delight. 

They branded luscious crops into her earth,

smoothed land with organic riches

and yet,

they

Ripped bodies of fruit and flesh from the loamy ground,

butchered food on death row conveyor belts,

until we couldn't taste it anymore,

couldn't distinguish nature 

from narcotics.

processed their "perfection" 

into our protesting mouths,

never stopping to set a limit,

to put an end, to this mass production.

In history books it will read:

"They searched quietly,

Scavenged food on treasure hunt paper bills

until they couldn't see it anymore, 

couldn’t distinguish security 

from starvation.

Protested against "perfection"

with pursed lips

never truly able to afford to set a limit,

To put an end, to the mass production."

The numbers were too large to ignore.

The numbers said it for us.

100,000 tonnes of rotting food sang through pits in bellies. 

Our food insecure 15% whispered pleas through minds.

The world's hungriest screamed to us like mic feedback.

So the media began preparing us for the new world, 

And as children, we watched, 

glassy-eyed.

Wave after commercial wave of new celebrities formed;

poster children of starvation,

flaunting bubbling abdomens,

bloated with the pride of the generations that made them.

glamourous models poured into streets, 

born of names destined to make the front page.

Anorexia,

Catabolysis,

Sarcopenia.

Our forefathers led them, hand in hand,

emptying their veins to the catwalks of 

flooded fields, 

the concert halls of produce that would never meet lips,

stunted and sputtering,

wasting into bloodied red carpets.

never stopping to set a limit,

to satiate the ever-hungry mouths,

to put an end to it. 

and as infants,

           we watched,

                     glassy-eyed.

                                                        

unable to walk away from our future.