“What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and wildness?  Let them be left,

O, let them be left, wildness and wet,

Long live the weeds, and the wildness yet.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Already completely killed off

Are America’s Jaguar and Jaguarundi

Soon Ocelot and Florida Panther will join them

These wondrous wild cats no longer able to live free

Only 80 Ocelots still cling to life

On America’s southern Gulf Coast

Very soon, they too, will be extinct

Something none of us should boast

There are less than 100 Florida Panthers still alive

Our never ending urban sprawl has sealed their fate

Historically, their range included the entire Southeast

Now, they are confined to the southern tip of the state

These two magnificent ancient cats

Now have virtually nowhere left to run

Condos, strip malls, and resort properties

Today replace their ancient forests in the sun

Doomed by junk food and very junky shopping malls

Massive modern day deforestation and huge road kill

Only five percent of their once forested homes remain

Destruction now seems modern man’s very greatest thrill

Even the wild Ocelot’s extremely tiny refuge

Near the Texas Gulf Coast’s South Padre Island

Will soon be gone, for yet more roads and resorts

Every inch of God’s earth taken over by modern man

Every year in the U.S., a million wild animals now perish

And more are pushed closer to extinction by modern man

And every year, as I look at the animals we are now killing

I simply cannot believe we are following the Creator’s Plan

Animals and mankind were able to share this continent

For countless thousands and thousands of earth years

Now, in less than 200, we have destroyed far too many

As species after species dies, not many even shed a tear

Even America’s once sacred national parks are now being torn up

Far too soon, there won’t be a single place left for our wild animals

And today, I very sadly wonder if America’s future school children

Will one day read that our generation took delight in killing them all

“We cannot,

And we will not,

Stop building,

Just for endangered animals.”

A Modern Day Land Developer and Lobbyist

And today, I very sadly wonder,

Just how many more Strip Malls,

Junky Fast Food Restaurants,

Pricey Private Golf Clubs,

Luxurious Seaside Resorts,

And 24-Hour Drive-Thru Pharmacies,

We Really and Truly Need.

Is all this new land development benefiting mankind,

Or, are we Americans, Today, just consumed with Greed?

“Look at our country now, it’s so very bereft,

Of wet and wildness; hardly any at all is left;

O, they killed them off, the wildness and the wet,

If only we could see, some weeds and wildness yet.”

An Extremely Sad Future School Child’s Song