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 continues 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? Building Up, Going Down First The farmhouses start to look abandoned boarded up rundown grey ~ Then, the fields go fallow farmers sold out, dead and gone 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 in the forest annihilated Cracked branch trunks stacked high sawdust flows Earth’s Pain / Earth’s Sorrow ECOCIDE Broken bones of the land machines crawling 24 / 7 The great trees life-long sentinels my dear friends I SEE YOU (Good-bye) Destroyed in broad daylight hide this from my vision or I too must surely die Next - the rock buckets arrive giant earth movers Believe it or not settler’s fields are a cut above these great mounds artificial hillocks geo-engineering Then - black tarps snaking around building to code partitioning the living Yet we know their days are numbered whatever is left of Earth Community - colonized, maintained & controlled Now - the land raped and stripped soil exposed, diversity gone forever waiting for the final blow a year or two may pass Then - the grid arrives construction requires fencing bricks streets wires hardware tunnels Hard hats hard hearts 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 screams in the night calls to the shrink erectile dysfunction The elevator that stops at extinct Bringing home more crap looks great in the store but not in the condo fantasies stacked high enough rubble to fill Lake Ontario A hell’s brew of metal, glass, ceramic, glue plastics made in China What have you done, Toronto? you set it in motion NATURE IS LIFE you chopped that down NATURE IS LAW here come the fires, the floods and the hurricanes NATURE IS LOVE you impaled your own soul Building up, going down as above so below Earth’s Sorrow / Earth’s Joy |
 | Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies for uncolonization, social justice, ethnocultural identity, building land-emergent community & resilience in times of massive change. PURCHASE LINKS Amazon.com www.stonecirclepress.com |
