Where Does All That Stuff Go?

where does all our trash go after we take it out and quickly forget it

          where do the poisons come from that foul the precious groundwater

         

where does the smoke go from those great and roaring diesel trucks

          where could that asthma come from in such a cute and cuddly little child

where does our litter go as we drive thoughtlessly on away

          where do these smokers learn to toss their butts so carelessly upon the ground

where do the animals go when we bulldoze away their homes

          where does the pride originate which says we are masters of the earth

where do the blue skies go when the smog grows thick and dark

          where does the money come from to clean up our dirty nest

         

where does all that stuff go that we so quickly pour down our drains

          where does the water come from which we need to drink every day

where do those creatures go we see run over out on the highway

          where do all the rats and roaches come scuttling out from under

where do all these people go when they are no longer young

          where do these young folks come from who cannot read or write

where does the dirty water rush to when hard rains fall upon this dirty concrete

          where do those leopard frogs come from that have too many legs

         

where does the wind blow the sulfur belched from these coal-fired smokestacks

          where do the poisons come from that sicken our sweet maples

where do our dreams go when we glimpse things as they really are

          where do the nightmares come from which seize us by the throats

         

where do the chemicals and fertilizers go after the crops are harvested

          where does the bluegrass come from that only grows in our yards

where do our human wastes end up after we see them out and down

          where does the salmonella come from that makes us feel so sick

where does the oil go when it is washed from the pavement

          where do songbirds come from if their baby’s insect food hatches far too early

where does the glass go when their smashed liquor bottles are not picked up

          where do the perverts come from who make us feel so sick

where does the dust go when the great trucks lift it in the air

          where do the scientists come from who bother us with junk facts

where do the calves go who we see romping every spring

          where do those yummy burgers come from that we munch without a care

         

where do the bunnies go when there is no more soft green grass

          where do the foxes take off to when the bunnies are no more

where do the clouds of smoke go when we must finally look away

          where does the oily and littered dirt come from that grows by the highway

where does the rain go after it stops falling upon our rooftops

          where do the rivers come from to which we owe our lives

where does the innocence go whenever the true violence begins

          where do those angry expressions come from on our beloved sons

         

where does our reason go when we march on off to war

          where does that hatred come from which they feel so strongly for us

where do the leftovers go when we toss them away upon our plastic plates

          where do these extra pounds come from, it must be some mistake

where does the protective diversity go when all our crops have identical genes 

          where do all the hungry people come from in this, our land of plenty

where do our minds actually go as we sit idly flipping channels

          where do these desires come from to keep on buying newer products

where do the teachers go when they have had enough of the bullshit

          where do the nurses come from to replace the burned-out who have to quit

where do the executives go when they have gotten all their phony bonuses

          where does your money come from when you are laid off for good at 50

where do those invisible gases go that spew from our tailpipes

          where does the fuel come from that we guzzle without a thought

where do the polar bears go to hunt when all the ice has melted

          where does the food and water come from for the million born each day

where do those whose way of life does not destroy their world live today

          where does the sense of belonging come from for those who have no homes

Even As We Hyper-Consume

Even as we sit in our happy little homes utterly warm and comfortable

many more squat quite hopeless on hardpacked dirt floors

Even as we concentrate fully upon our surreal consumption

well over a billion live on unable to afford even the basics

Even as our own vast health care choices grow ever more costly

others need not pay for that which is not even offered

Even as some of us grow wiser about the food that we eat

some eat the wild animals that can never be replaced

Even as we struggle to manage the tattered remnants of our forests

many walk miles just to cut and carry their own daily firewood

Even as we spend ever more on our hi-tech weapon systems

Our greatest enemies cannot afford shoes for their feet

Even as we stand thoughtless in a hot and steamy shower

teenage mothers carry filthy water to their sickly children

Even as we despoil with concrete and bulldozers

others use hand axes, fire and goats to gain their own advantages

Even as we casually cast our fast food wrappers out upon the roads

millions make a crude living by combing through garbage

Even as our loving mothers shepherd children safely inside locked mini-vans

starving babies suck with empty eyes at dusty and desiccated breasts

Even as we grow bored and find no meaning in our lives

Dirty and hungry hordes consider no more than their next meal

Even as our monstrous SUVs thirstily guzzle the dregs of the oil as we drive all alone

they have no power, sewers, running water, cars or <gasp> even television

Even as we discard decent clothes merely for fashion's fickle sake

others cut their footwear from the remnants of old tires

Even as we indulge in communal botoxification

infants die in the desert with flies in their eyes

Even as we lavish thousands upon the care of our pets

children in their schools do not get even our used eyeglasses

Even as we prepare to suck the oil from our last wild places

we council the less-fortunate to leave their own rain forests intact forever

Even as we deplore their sick & irrational religious fanaticism

our cause remains righteous because the one true God is on our side

Even as we imprison them as unlawful combatants

we attack them and kill them quite against the rules we invented ourselves

Even as we constantly preach about the value of sweet freedom

they must choose to be either with us or be counted among our hated enemies

Even as the tender buds emerge in the gentle rain

the unholy diesel fumes blacken the lungs of our precious children

Even as we grow fatter, feedlot-style, on factory corporate sludge

too many others share our castoffs with the rats and the roaches

Even as we proudly disdain the need to read and to write

the ruling 1% finds it easier to pass off even more twisted & unsubstantiated half-truths

Even as world opinion grows ever stronger with regard to our actions

we grow yet more righteous and even less empathetic

Even as we prepare to spend more on the military each and every year

many children supposedly safe at home dose on mercury, lead and diesel

Even as our leaders preach of security and prosperity

their corporate cronies cut benefits and move both production & design overseas

Even as they urge pay cuts, layoffs and pension eliminations,

executives get more of everything, come profit or come loss

Even as they embrace you with false smiles and promises of a grand future

their earlier work left you out of their plans and alone on the street

Even as our blessed children loll like fattening swine upon our couches

we continue spending more money that we have not yet even earned

Even as our grasping fingers clutch at last at the marketers prize

there remain but few traces of our folly in the ash underfoot

Even as in May the young calf happily nudges his mother in the meadow

the feedlots & slaughterhouses prepare a place for him come the Fall

Even as we joyfully celebrate that Friday finally came again

we are already awaking to a depressive and smoggy Monday morning

Even as we look forward to the quiet contemplation of a dignified retirement

we actually just grow older without grace or respect and in fear

Even as the day draws to a close and the quiet shadows stir

there is still time for more noise and room to belch acrid smoke

Even as the tourist industry produces more fun every year

the things that they pimp become worn out and cannot be recycled

Even as the church bells peal out across quiet township sunsets

somewhere criminals are callously stealing pensions from trusting widows

Even as we summon up the best from within us for our greatest effort

our sociopathic so-called leaders demand young lives before they can know any better

Even as the quiet waters flow through boreal forests without end

Our mere survival smears more brown deserts around this blue-green planet

Even as honest tradesmen strive to do the good thing every day on every job

greedy salesmen cackle as they waste their fat commissions on foolish baubles

Even as we calculate the billions of light years known to the universe so far

we do not even nearly comprehend the incredible shortness of our vapid lives

Modern Tribal Wisdom

We drew scenes from our trances on cave walls and signed them with our handprints

We worship the flickering images all produced to relieve of us of our money & reason

We thanked the creator and the animals for their sacrifices on our behalf

We build factory slaughterhouses and raise our meat without any mercy or grace

We tried to orient ourselves in our small part of this vast cosmos

Our current set of one true gods set us apart from the earth and all its creatures

We painted ourselves with ochre in patterns derived from mother nature

We encase ourselves within steel and plastic SUV cocoons while spewing toxins

We lived in caves with our dogs and guarded the fire with our lives

We are caught in their artificial cycle of electronically-induced consumption

We were small in number, often moving on, and the land restored itself behind us

We remain trapped in our own wastes by the millions in squalid, unplanned cities

We carved the salmon on the cedar and tried to find our own spirit creature

Our holidays have been disinfected by religion and co-opted by marketeers

Many of us died hunting the wooly mammoth and the giant cave bear

Injured former would-be athletes lay broken on soft couches, loudly gaining weight

We clashed with other tribes and mated with their women

We kill to demonstrate the moral superiority of our own loving & merciful god

We knew the cycles of the moon and the march of the seasons

Many among us never notice the weather until we’re forced to walk to our cars in the rain

In our potlatches we strived for status by giving away as much as we could

We pass by the homeless every day with our windows up and damn their lazy poverty

We carved totem poles that told the spirit stories of our clans

They make millions on our co-opted allegiance to empty corporate sports franchises

We solemnly left mother in the snow when she could walk no more

Grandma is drugged & abused by a variety of misfits in her warehouse nursing home

Each of us knew the history and all the legends of our ancestors and tribe

We dismiss that which happened over ten years ago as irrelevant & stupid ancient history

Our innate wastefulness was safely diluted by the fact of our small numbers

Now, we can despoil even the vast oceans and upset the very climate of the earth

We cataloged the plants for food, medicine and healing for a hundred thousand years

We pick cans off shelves by their pictures since we can’t quite read their labels

Life was hard and we knew by example that we must all die quite young

We spend billions trying hopelessly to restore a youth we wasted so long ago

We cuddled up and dreamed away the long Ice Age nights in communal shelters

We are chronically tired from working by our unwavering mechanical clocks

  

Our individual survival depended upon the success of our little group

Men sit drinking all alone in cheap, tiny rooms beneath dingy naked light bulbs

Specialized knowledge was accumulated and passed down in our arts and crafts

Disposable workers are worked long hours at degrading, low-paid tasks to profit others

Everything we tossed aside was native to the landscape, in any case

We spread our exotic toxins in far greater volumes than the earth can absorb

Leadership was recognized but assumed with humility and respect

Today’s managers scale the corporate ladder by ass kissing, sucking up and kicking down

The deformed, weak, sick and crippled quickly re-entered the spirit realm

We nurture the handicapped and rush to transform the human world in their image

We named the brilliant constellations and had stories about them all

Our lights have hidden the stars and our creation myth is old and stale

Our sturdy clothing came from things that we hunted, gathered and traded

Today we wear the identical products of massive mindless far-off wage slavery

As we wandered we often grew wet, cold, tired and very dirty

A few of us enjoy unlimited hot showers but so many lack clean drinking water & toilets

Our shamans were judged by the accuracy of their wisdom and knowledge

Advertising-controlled corporate media tells smarmy spin doctors exactly what to preach

We feasted on the sweetness of wild fruits and berries in their times

We gorge daily on sugar, salt and chemical flavorings fried up in fatty industrial oils

We forded at known safe places only when the water was not too high

We’ve channelized and sucked the diverted rivers dry after removing their sheltering trees

Everyone knew the stories of each and every member of our band

We live in a sea of strangers that tosses restlessly 24x7 just outside our locked doors

The legends we passed on required the imagination and memory of the listeners

Our entertainment is mindless, violent, sexual and created just to sell us things

The smart and the strong led the hunt and made the kills

Our generals plot from boardroom safety far away from the front lines

We marked the turning of the seasons with rites unique to our sacred places

Now time passes to the rhythm of artificial corporate retail holiday hype

We had no concept of owning any of the sacred lands we walked

Patriotic developers chop up vast parcels of that heritage to sell us little pieces of implanted dreams

Each of us could detail his lineage going back many, many generations

We cannot find on maps the places where our grandparents were supposedly born

Children grew strong in lives spent outside in the untouched & pristine surroundings

We raise our offspring indoors, drugged, chemically supplemented and nurtured electronically

Our Progress Did All This To You

When you see brutal machinery gouging up the gentle land you once knew

We did this without so much as a passing thought about you

When your ears hurt from the noise and your nose burns from the stench

We drove casually by and did this to you without the slightest pretense

When the rain does not fall and the sun is too hot and it feels too crowded

We did this and We needed no help to get it all started

When the water is dirty and grows ever scarcer

We did this with kindness and you need not fear, sir

When you cast out any others at all different from you

We did this and they, our cloned brothers, were not just a few

When you soil your nests and move on without a care

We did our duty and squatted in relief before you ever got there

When you stole from your children the life from the land

We did them a favor and steadied your greedy hand

When all you can think of is escape to mass media hypnosis

We did this for you with love that you might learn via osmosis

When you sit alone behind your car's tinted windows, swallowing the smog

We did this that you all might be ground closer in their great gears and cogs

When your children learn nothing, take everything and return only scorn

We did my best to make them just like you since the day they were born

When you work for years just to be kicked away like sick old prostitutes

We did our part to import your cheap and disposable substitutes

When you used it once and flipped it away

We smiled at your bored children going off again to play

When you swilled fast food and dreamed of the days when you were slim

We laughed as you were driving your car to the gym

When you bought your new clothes for the thrill of their bright colors

We did this so that you would not notice that your life grew ever duller

When you financed new vehicles and drove around on your phone

We helped you to think that your life was your own

When you mortgaged your future to spend more today

We fooled you into thinking you’d never have to pay

When you babbled alone to your cellphone in a crowd

We reported this as well, although not quite as loud

When you always spent more and never kept anything aside

We did this so that you would have nothing to look back on with pride

When you bought all the dreams that conglomerates were pitching

We did this counting softly, laughing, not bitching

When you smoked and you drank and you ate your rich food

We wrote songs to sell you things by shaping your attitude

When you took pride in your ignorance of the ways of your brothers

We saw why you had appointed yourselves to lead all the others

When you tried to look back and make sense of your time

We did what We could to hide these empty things from your mind

When your eyes began to fail you and you could no longer touch your toes

We did this with you but you will remain very much alone

When you thought you had mastered this life and all of its fears

We smiled as you finally tried to look deeper than into a mirror

When you planned romantic adventures for your golden years

We saw someone’s life ending in embarrassment and irrational fears

When you envisioned a time in which you grew old with grace

We smell your stale bedpans in an inhuman place

When you at last sat alone and planned a death with true dignity

We see it in millions and chuckle at the absurdity

When you finally saw these few things that others let slip

We mumbled this sadly through your barely moving lips

After All This Progress

Where will we be?

After all the tigers have nowhere left to roam or hunt

They then become a menace and can be removed without a trace of guilt

After all the rhinos have stubbornly given up their lovely ivory horns

Oriental men will have to find another way to attain their magical erections

After all the elephants must be bred only in captivity

bull sperm will be harvested mechanically and the musty creatures drugged

After all the relevant decision-making is done by god-fearing neo-cons

we can search with lights in daytime for what they left behind as worthy of conserving

After everyone has all the guns they need but little food and there are no jobs

then it's time to send out our drugged child soldiers to clean up the countryside

After all the pigs and cows and chickens are manufactured like TV sets

At least this absurd and disgusting state has left our sanctimonious morality intact

After all the old growth trees are cut and shipped off overseas

there will be no logging jobs left and no reason for tourists to visit and to spend

After all the mighty tuna have vanished from the bluest ocean depths

we can try to convince ourselves that in god’s plan there is no need to miss them

After all our cows are made safe from natural predators on federal lands

we can clone them even stupider, fatten them faster and sell them cheaper

After all the salmon are raised in filthy pens using colors chosen off of salesman paint chips

they will be better suited for packaging in modern plastics beneath the bright lights

After all the solitary orangutans have no more deep forest refuges

they must adapt to any zoo lives that we might care to give them

After all the rivers are simply grimy, stinking channels for our wastes and toxic runoff

we are surely safe from disruptive floods until the end of our time

After all the wild grizzlies run out of places they can dominate alone

we will save just their genes, for they will not tolerate lives of captivity

After all the ice melts for good and seals always surface in open water

the polar bears can sit wasting away quietly on the shore for a while

After all the trout caught come dumped straight from hatchery trucks

all the remaining so-called anglers get all the adventure that they deserve

After all the jaguars lose their territories to slashing and burning urban refugees

it's simply pointless not to drain and settle the rest of their one-time jungle

After all the mountain valleys are accessible by wheelchairs, ATVs and dirt bikes

we really should bid out themed strip malls at the end of every trail

After all the songbirds have been mysteriously gone for many years

loud mufflers may be a comfort in a new and strange and uncomfortable silence

After all the frogs stop their friendly croaking during summer evenings

we will shortly realize that we never really needed them in any case

After all the coral reefs are bleached, dynamited and poisoned quite long ago

it is simply one less pointless eco-issue over which they will still have to argue

After all the small sanctuaries fill with roads and stores and homes

at least that mindless and frenetic pace of change must finally begin to slow

After all the resources have been plundered, transported and consumed

we will hand carry our water in a wasteland we are too poor to even try and heal

After all the snow that falls is simply lousy with fire retardants and such

we can scold our little children as they try to catch the flakes upon their tongues

After all the forests become simple assets on corporate balance sheets

they will finally begin to pay their way in freedom’s scheme of things

After all the costly giant hardwoods are cut down and hauled away

it then makes a lot of sense to simply slash and burn and grade the rest

After all the land is paved over and plotted out by giant yellow caterpillars

the rains can wash our unchecked, oily residues straight into the streams

After all the quiet, unspoiled places fill with noise and smoke and litter

wackos can then search elsewhere for the peace that once filled the air

         

After all the wildlife is driven off, shot, burnt out or poisoned

the roaches, rats, mosquitoes and flies will remain behind to comfort us

After all the kids have brains full of lead and mercury and lungs full of diesel fumes

Welfare mothers need not worry that the rich have all of the advantages

After all the native plants are extinguished by rapacious invasive weeds

good old weak and thirsty, non-native bluegrass will seem like a damn fine thing

After all the factories are abandoned and their jobs sent overseas

who can still afford the cheaper imports at the new Wal*Mart right next door

After all the engineering is outsourced to geeky losers off in foreign lands

our poor children need not learn their stupid math or junky science anymore

After the only jobs are with the government and poverty is the norm

we will live as those far away had done before our jobs went over there

After all the smarter people simply give up on having children

who will pay for the schools and where will the teachers come from

After all the western highways offer corporate fast food every couple miles

we can marvel in sterile safely at the untamed beauty of the desert skies

After all the rivers carry only chemicals, grease, sewage and fertilizer for years

The times will be less contentious because no one will remember any different

After all the oil is gone and commerce comes grinding to a depressionary halt

it will then be quite pointless and far too late to lay the blame on politicians or Big Oil

After all of Africa casts off its racist, extractive, corrupt and colonial legacies

pigs will flutter off like puffy butterflies upon their newly-sprouted wings

After all our days are squandered and we haven't even had time to read our bills

we will saddle any generations yet to come with a heavy long-term debt from birth