O the Trees!
Joel Durr
O the trees! O the trees!
Cut off at the knees -
they reach for the sun no longer, you know.
Now they serve the interests o’ capitalists
As catalysts to subsequent selfishness.
Our plunder for lumber and popsicle sticks;
The well-calculated blowing of mountains to bits,
for the profit from coal, bituminous
are far more dangerous than any terrorist hits.
For it was Abraham Lincoln a-sittin’ and thinkin'
that our fall would surely come from within.
He feared for the day
when corporations could say
they succeeded in usurping the state.
This line we surely have already crossed,
that is unless you are asking your boss.
For all is maintained quite out of perspective
by framing within the specific objective
of free market, benefit and cost.
“Consume, be silent, and die” they say
though phrased in a much more positive way
through television, internet and radio ads
that promote all the newest material fads.
This is a smokescreen to serve the obstruction
to your view of the heinous perverted destruction
of our natural waters, air, and land
and to keep you submissive beneath their command.
But remember this o woman, man and child!
These plans rely upon our complicit denial
of the consequences of certain free market decisions
that further perpetuate our social divisions.
But we can yet repair the damage produced:
distinguishing wants from needs - consumption reduced.
This here’s a bandwagon worth jumping on
because we can survive “business as usual” for only so long.