XLVII
How will history judge us?
Will our epitaph be:
The people who were responsible for
Polluting the wide open sea?
Will we be remembered for
Our fast and reliable cars,
Or for poisoning city centres
And spreading motorway scars?
Will future generations say we used
Their share of fossil fuel
And decimated several species
With our weapons - efficient and cruel?
Will they appreciate our development
Of non-reactive gases
That damage the ozone layer
Bringing cancer to suntanned masses?
Will they admire our grain production
Or will they all say
That nitrate poisoned water
Is too high a price to pay?
Will our children thank us
For nuclear energy
Or compain that we have ruined
Their land and sky and sea?
Will they laud us as the conquerors
Of many a crippling disease
Or remember us for destroying
Untold millions of trees?
Will our descendents revere our inventions -
Our achievements - our space plan -
Or call us "Homo destructus"
Twentieth century man.
17.10.1991
Written for the World Wildlife Poetry Competition
