The unintended consequences of civilization spill out into reality
Setting up the anthropocalypse which looms over our future
Ironically, civilization was seen as the planet’s healer
Carefully shepherding nature into something new and improved
Giving proof, we thought, of our superiority
Validating our entitlement to have dominion over everything else
But it seems like the patient is suffering iatrogenesis
Taken ill with the flesh eating disease of runaway capitalism
Starving on empty calories while becoming morbidly obese
We drain our aquifers to water golf courses in the desert
Cut down rainforests to factory farm cattle for fast food burgers
Building monuments to consumption like oceanic garbage gyres
Blindly buying crap we don’t need made by slaves we don’t see
We live on borrowed credit in houses which are bigger than we need
While others shelter in improvised shacks
Or get swallowed up into prisons to be drafted into gangs
We poison the water, the land and the air
And wonder why things aren’t the same anymore
We let democracy fade away through apathy
As corporate plutocracy takes control
Instead of rising up and declaring our own sovereignty
We sit back and watch performers pretend that life is good
We amuse ourselves vicariously and identify with illusions
Through inaction we turn ourselves into ghosts who scare nobody but ourselves
As civilization sickens into the decadence of the dying
Infected by fear and paralyzed by our lack of vision
David Trudel © 2013
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Iatrogenesis
The unintended consequences of civilization spill out into reality
Setting up the anthropocalypse which looms over our future
Ironically, civilization was seen as the planet’s healer
Carefully shepherding nature into something new and improved
Giving proof, we thought, of our superiority
Validating our entitlement to have dominion over everything else
But it seems like the patient is suffering iatrogenesis
Taken ill with the flesh eating disease of runaway capitalism
Starving on empty calories while becoming morbidly obese
We drain our aquifers to water golf courses in the desert
Cut down rainforests to factory farm cattle for fast food burgers
Building monuments to consumption like oceanic garbage gyres
Blindly buying crap we don’t need made by slaves we don’t see
We live on borrowed credit in houses which are bigger than we need
While others shelter in improvised shacks
Or get swallowed up into prisons to be drafted into gangs
We poison the water, the land and the air
And wonder why things aren’t the same anymore
We let democracy fade away through apathy
As corporate plutocracy takes control
Instead of rising up and declaring our own sovereignty
We sit back and watch performers pretend that life is good
We amuse ourselves vicariously and identify with illusions
Through inaction we turn ourselves into ghosts who scare nobody but ourselves
As civilization sickens into the decadence of the dying
Infected by fear and paralyzed by our lack of vision
David Trudel © 2013
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Tagged as apocalypse, blank verse, civilzation, creative writing, creativity, end times, environmentalism, failed states, free verse, Great Pacific Garbage Gyre, iatrogenesis, inspiration, metaphor, natural history, poetry, social activism, social commentary, societal breakdown, truth