Got laid off did you? Can’t meet the mortgage
On your well-kept three bedroom two bath house?
Skimping a bit on dining out? Courage
Lout! And, for pity’s sake, give up grousing!
Trouble with car payments, filling the tank?
Save yourself and Earth—push it off a cliff.
Walk, cycle, take the bus. Deplore the dank
Pinch of frivolous fate, do you? Well, sniff
About a bit. Mark those three billion souls,
Half the planet’s writhing mass, pristine, pure—
Blessed without a thing to lose—cajoling
Puckered plots for one day’s sustenance, inured,
Hunger-hollowed, nature’s worm-ridden prey—
While we shriek at shrunken ‘401k’s.
(1/20/09)