(This poet has chosen to stay anonymous)
When I was a child, I lived where the river bank met the edge of the forest, and where the edge of the forest met the valley
I spent my days swimming in the jewel-blue streams of the river,
climbing the gargantuan green trees,
And running through the valleys filled with beautiful white and red flowers
My grandchildren, this is how it was
I remember the fresh air, like a cold breeze on a Saturday morning
I remember the clear river, so much that I could see the fish swimming beneath my feet
I remember the trees with the thick trunks that sat by the edge of the forest, their branches providing me with shade
Nature was my medicine
My grandchildren, this is how it was
But as those days and memories began to fade away, so did my nature
The fish in the river were replaced with plastic bottles and bags, and the soil was replaced with oil
The dehydrated trees turned brown with weakened twigs and dying yellow flowers
The valleys became a dessert, left with nothing but dead roots, black dust and pesticides
My grandchildren, this is how it changed
Now I sit on my chair and watch the days go by and remember the childhood you will never have
You will never experience the type of river that I swam in, the river that would now poison anybody that dared to swim in it
You will never experience those trees that I climbed, the trees that would now drop any child that dared to climb their weakened branches
You will never experience those valleys that I ran in, the valleys that simply don’t exist anymore
My grandchildren, this is how it is
You are deprived of the medicine that I lived and breathed
When I was a child, I looked up to nature
But now nature stumbles at our feet, choking, dying, looking up at us
But you will never know the beauty of nature, to care enough to save it
My grandchildren, this is how it is
--
Poet's note:
"When I was a child, my grandfather would always tell me stories about the different adventures he had as a child in Ethiopia during the late 1940s. Every story he told me about was somehow connected to nature and he would constantly tell me how things were no longer the same. I wrote this poem to honor him and the nature he so dearly loved."
