Carshalton Upper Pond by N Chadwick is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0
The rich are the retaining wells of culture they believe.
They wear their wealth and status on their sleeves
or on their pockets front or back, across their chest,
or from their shoulder purses hanging slack.
Declaring status for all to see.
If there were no caste system there would be
no racism.
If there were no racism there would be
no climate change nor earth destruction.
For where would we put the poison men create?
Not near the wealthy classes’s gate.
They neither see nor suffer unsafe states.
Where do we bury their wealth-earned waste?
Not in Esher. Nor in St. Germain-des-Pres.
Not in Tribeca. Nor in Oud Zuid.
Not in Medina. Nor in Atherton.
Not in Port Royal. Nor in Kensington.
Not in Assiniboine Park. Nor in Port Royal.
Not in Patterson Hill. Nor in The Peak.
Not in any of the places only the rich speak
with cultured voice and true concern
for what the world has now become
with each season’s unusual turn.
These richest places to live on this earth
are retaining ponds which only confuse
the deadline for earth’s destruction
which we all face.
And those who have been cast aside.
who carry bottles governments provide,
or heavy jugs of polluted water
about the countryside,
from deadened rivers
and from polluted, toxic wells
live where the poorest live, unwelcome
to live among the swells.
They live where the poorest dwell,
said to be the lower class,
and are placed among the lowest caste,
selected by race, color or birthplace.
we have no time to waste.
The retaining ponds must survive
to protect and pursue untainted water and skies,
to use their wealth to break down barriers,
to deconstruct the racist muck
they have placed us all in.
Clean air and water should be there for all.
If not, even the mighty and wealthy will fall
as earth reclaims what once was hers
an untainted world free of all humanity
and it poisonous thoughts and actions.
No racism, no caste sytem.
This I long to see.
If only earth can survive you and me.
Retaining wells we all be.
annarino writes 