Another oil spill…
We stand and watch, all teary eyed
While tanker trucks and rail cars bump and grind,
Super ships cruise from port to port,
Pipelines stretch across the open land;
The thick black sludge sloshing around inside,
Another accident waiting to happen.

We are bad children, pin-pricking a fragile crust.
It is a festering of sores pocked by our obsession,
Abscessed and infected,
We should have let them heal decades ago
But we keep picking at the scabs.

Oh yes, we’ll talk of safeguards and contingency plans
While back room bandits subvert safety regulations,
Offer up their band-aid fixes,
But only in the event of some “unforeseen” disaster.

This blatant disregard for worst-case scenarios
Has become our own undoing,
Leaving us with one-too-many all-too-real-life misfortunes:
Toxins tainting tap water,
Chemicals contaminating food,
This crude destroying thousands of fragile ecosystems,
Drilling and fracking
Wrecking our wetlands, our farmlands, our beaches,
Killing off the wildlife and poisoning the people.

All in the name of a cheap lubricant and a fast-buck fuel.

It is not not broken!

So, when will we say, “This folly must come to an end -
This is just wrong – enough’s enough?”
For some reason we continue to suck it up.
So too, we continue to make quite the mess.
And, just so you know,
Tears alone won’t stop the flow,
Nor will things change with more excuses!