The Creeping Tide

[Stephen Whiteside]

Keppel today. Tomorrow...?


The Creeping Tide

Oh, the world grows small as it falls away to the stern advance of Man,
And the birds and beasts and the flowers and trees all manage the best they can.
We're told it is only a small piece lost. There's plenty remains pristine,
But all I see is the grey advance, and the steady retreat of green.

For we lose our sense of what once was, the scale of what's been lost.
We watch the towers rise to the sky, and never can count the cost.
It's a little bit here, and a little bit there, spread over a drawn-out time.
The creeping is subtle, insidious, slick - but it's still no less of a crime.

My father saw a good chunk lost. I saw a good chunk too,
And so will my son. It will be too late for his grandson to rue.
We humans flourish and multiply, over ever more ground hold sway,
But our dear little planet stays just the same, and something must fall away.

Extinction's bad - our golden rule. Avoid it any cost,
But we don't seem to care if the numbers fall, as long as they're not all lost;
And when at last extinction comes - as surely it must, for many...
Well that was the price for another John, and Jane, and Jack, and Jenny.

Stephen Whiteside 07.03.2013

[Neville Briggs]

Should we abolish the human race ??

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yes, obviously.

[Stephen Whiteside]

You call ME pessimistic?

[Neville Briggs]

Extinction's bad - our golden rule. Avoid it any cost

Doesn't that include humans ?

Maybe if some authority bulldozed all the suburban blocks and moved people into high rise apartments, or terrace style housing, we could all fit in a smaller space.