The Upside of Intransigence

You needn't spend a lot of time imagining the ways you might
Get humans to preserve themselves. You can't. They will not
Change their ways, but that's all right. The earth itself is taking
Steps to overcome its human virus. Fever-like, the planet warms,
And, as it does, the humans die by millions. Water can't be
Found, and, thus, the creatures drop from thirst, or hunger, as their
Crops won't grow, and, in their need, they go to war, and millions
More are wiped away. With fewer left, the means by which they lived
Destroyed, the planet heals. Like dinosaurs reduced to birds,
The heedless bipeds cease to be so great a burden on the earth,
And things turn out okay, not because they acted to undo their
Harmful practices, but because what they kept on doing ultimately
Left most of them dead.





Poetry by Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
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Written on 2024-10-05 at 12:29

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alarian The PoetBay support member heart!
dinosaurs-birds-planes (maybe the dreams of the dinosaurs...)
2024-10-05


Ingvar Loco Nordin The PoetBay support member heart!
Yes!! I wrote a rhymed poem in Swedish yesterday about the same situation. I'll see if I can translate it!
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I let Chat GPT have a go at it. It's rhymed, like I said, in Swedish - but here is a crude American interpretation, just for you!:

MARBURG & EBOLA

Tellus craves Marburg & Ebola,
explosives & poisoned cola,
a powerful pandemic
that snuffs out those we call us;
at least most of us,
yes, let's use cyanide to celebrate,
maybe then we can save most
of what our sheer numbers undermine,
that’s what responsibility demands,
for all the problems the planet suffers
when exhaust-stung eyes burn and itch
are caused by the fact that we are far too many;
an invasive species that makes conditions tight
for everything & everyone in Earth's biosphere;
Homo sapiens is the worst trouble of all living things

Logic points to the example of lemmings,
stamp an exit mark on your own forehead;
let's sterilize the majority of the human horde,
so we naturally die out and save the Earth,
because Homo sapiens has become too dominant;
our sheer numbers cause Earth’s murders

Yes, let us become merely a parenthesis on Earth;
it doesn’t really matter if we’re never seen again,

for surely Tellus craves Marburg & Ebola,
explosives & poisoned cola;
a powerful pandemic
that snuffs out those we call us!
2024-10-05