Hear the Earth

Listen! I am between the sidewalk cracks

Listen! Here under asphalt bought with tax

Listen! To city trees with smog their ax

Hear my healing voice and have hope again

Open your ears, follow the source so then

You might hear clearly words from my vast den

Follow my voice to where winds smell sweeter

Do not let a thing from the sound deter

I wait where my unstopped mouth speaks neater

Here no concrete foundations hold me down

And soft green grass is my glistening crown

No longer are we in a smoky town

City towers of steel stand on my face

Though I gave them metal out of kind grace

Now it is my voice they wish to erase

My green wooden fingers reach up in vain

My grand and rocky fists protest the reign

Of firm structures that view me with disdain

The huge coal furnaces give them power

My dirty dark offspring lights a tower

And makes a black mist that turns rain sour

Glorified steam engines pollute my streams

With invisible and corrupt light beams

This energy’s not as clean as it seems

See, child, observe, and note my many woes

My own womb has produced my greatest foes

The growing betray everything that grows