BY PEGI EYERS
"Gardens Manufactured" by Cheryl Molnar
Already millions of acres of farmland surrounding the Greater Toronto area have succumbed to development in recent years, in Ontario's (so-called) protected Greenbelt zone. For those who can afford it, the demand is desperate for traditional detached family homes and townhouses. The building boom is continuing to explode as the population of Toronto is projected to hit 13.5 million by 2041. As the last great resource colony on the planet, Canada remains open to millions of immigrants from all over the world, and once an ecosystem is razed it is gone forever.
| What Have You Done, Toronto? Building Up, Going Down First The farmhouses start To look abandoned Boarded up Rundown grey ~ Then the fields go fallow Farmers dead, gone, sold out Then The signs go up “For Sale” “Project By” “Chief Engineer” Oligarchy buys in Planes in a bleached sky Terminus at Pearson Next The land is denuded Creatures of the forest Annihilated Cracked branch Sawdust flows Trunks stacked high Earth Pain Earth Sorrow ECOCIDE Broken bones of the land 24 hours a day 7 days a week My dear friends The great trees Life-long sentinels I SEE YOU (Good-bye) Destroyed in broad daylight Hide this from my vision Or I too may surely die Next The machines arrive Giant earth movers Believe it or not Settler fields are a cut above These great mounds Artificial hillocks Geo-engineering Then Black tarps Snaking around Building to code Partitioning the living Yet you know their days are numbered Whatever is left of Earth Community Is colonized, maintained and controlled Now The land stripped and raped Exposed, Gone forever Waiting for the final blow A year or two may pass Then The grid arrives Construction requires Streets fencing bricks Wires hardware tunnels Hard hearts hard hats The gated community Wut Planting shrubs where once were forests Homes clogged side-by-side Or a high-rise crane Mega-build Digging cavities Deep in the Mother Boxes in the sky! Here comes the insanity The allergies The depression Calls to the shrink Screams in the night Erectile dysfunction The elevator that stops at extinct Bring home more crap Looks great in the store But not in your apartment Fantasies stacked high Enough rubble to fill Lake Ontario A hell’s brew of Metal, glass, glue, ceramic Plastics made in China What have you done, Toronto? You set it in motion NATURE IS LIFE You chopped that down NATURE IS LOVE You impaled your own soul NATURE IS LAW Here come the fires, the floods and hurricanes Earth’s sorrow and Earth’s joy > As above so below < |
 | Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies for neurodecolonization, social justice, ethnocultural identity, building land-emergent community & resilience in times of massive change. PURCHASE LINKS Amazon.com www.stonecirclepress.com |
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