Across a dark smoke smothered sky, not a single star hove into sight,
No glinting hint of a broad bright moon, amidst that cat black gloom,
as we stir the caustic cauldron with the witches’ spoon.
Fast poured molten metal spits flurried sparks in flight.
Not much else to brighten this blackest coal-fired night,
save a dim wicked oil filled lamp, casing sheened with creeping damp,
corpse white starch, seeps through the cracks in a brick lined arch,
dripping on us workers' backs bowed like a weeping larch
willed downward by water overflowing from the sluices ramp.
We worked with soot speckled faces, limbs caught in cramp.
Agitating an evil after-brew while toxic bubbles burst uncontrolled.
Were we supposed to judge, the poisons spawned by acrid sludge,
as we paddled in a devil’s haze our paymaster did not not budge.
We worked to keep our families safe, that’s what we were told.
An ignorance that killed a precious world for a puny pot of gold.
Nothing’s changed, humans it's time to blink, open closed eyes and think
on a planet plundered to excess, all for the sake of capitalist success.
Yet all is not lost if a radical plan of action was permitted to address,
two centuries of industrial pollution to clear until this Earth shall sink
before the storm; water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.
A McTiernan
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... 202%20.htm
