Travesty

I grew up on a small Alberta farm

Now there are few like that around

Most land now owned by corporations or Hutterites

And they don’t care about trees or animal rights

And the oil companies destroy their share

With pump-jacks and pipelines everywhere

I go back to the rolling land, once beautiful

With grassy hills, poplar, fir and birch wood

And find it has been scraped flat and bare

Population a fraction of what once was there

And dying towns along the highways to more

Form a drug pusher’s easy corridor

 My family’s land is a last reserve

For trees, bees, butterflies, and birds

Which have suffered death or long-term harm

From the mono-culture, pesticide-laden farms

Monster machines destroy the life in the soil

Unchecked winds blow away the future and topsoil

The stores import our foods from Mexico

Or overseas… how it’s grown--we don’t know

I grieve for all that has been lost

Despair that so many don’t even know the cost

And those that understand don’t care

To improve food and environmental welfare

It will take a younger generation

Concerned with the health of the nation

Who understand nature’s complex biosystems

To change current practises with wisdom

And turn the travesty of the modern farm

To producing food without doing harm