“Yesterday”

There are two reasons I feel comfortable posting my first recorded poem today. 1) Nobody ever responds to my poems (in general…almost as a rule, though) and 2) it is my birthday so people are more prone to go easy on this early work. If I keep up this justification it will be 4-5 years before I have posted all my “amatuer” poems, one every birthday. In light of its age (and my age when I wrote it) please bear with its roughness. I was pretty humorous even then, it is good to see, as I re-read the last stanza…😀

Yesterday

Yesterday the earth was clean
Yesterday the water was clear
Today the precious forests are lean
Today nuclear destruction is near

Yesterday the animals roamed
Yesterday the birds flew the sky
Today many fields are domed
Today we watch species die

Yesterday the trees loomed high
Yesterday the sky shined blue
Today tall buildings multiply
Today we’re losing the only land we knew

The earth may be fine, while we’re alive
We can breathe the clean air and sigh
But the children in a generation or five
Will curse us while they suffocate and die

Spring 1992