I have been fortunate to have worked for nearly 40 years in a range of workplaces. Some have been good and some have nearly destroyed me. I talked with someone yesterday and was reminded again of the true cost when a business or organisation sees people as objects from which they can extricate value. Strip mining them for the commodity they seek and neglecting everything else. And, leaving behind an environmental catastrophe.
This poem touches on some of those themes and the ways in which we cover up and justify such behaviour.
Strip mined business
Row upon row
Stripped bare of any potential,
Leaving nothing,
Then moving on quickly,
Ready to plough a new furrow,
Destruction hidden in a survey,
That says everything is ok?
The value scraped off,
Doesn’t show,
The contamination seeping,
deep below the surface,
Unseen but,
the source of life,
Is poisoned,
Slowly creating death,
Beginning as true believers,
Ending as disillusioned castoffs.
Rape is a crime,
But, strip mining makes money,
So we continue to do it,
Raping again and again,
The tally growing with our success,
But, excusing everything, saying,
the economy made me do it,
Broken hopes cast off,
Because they didn’t believe enough,
In the meantime we all wait,
For when the full price will be paid.
