Poem: Concrete is wet as it is created

Concrete is wet as it is created.

Then it turns cold, hard.

Then it remains.

For ever,

And ever.

The concrete jungle surrounds me.

The noise of motorbikes, cars and buses engulfs me.

I cannot escape the fumes,

Apart from when I set out

On a journey

Very far from home.

The smog is above.

It hides the night sky.

Oh, what a beautiful starry night sky

That I

Cannot see.

So much is happening up there.

Energetic explosions,

Tales of lost worlds.

All this hidden

By our need to get there fast.

We have a limited time on this planet. We must make the most of the time we do have. Do not delay! Repay the debts we were born into. Do it quick and the debt is less. But wait an age and the debt will never be repaid.

Quick get there fast. Do not delay! Get there faster than the other guy for more pay.

More money in hand. More bread on the table. More material expendable. More time in the sun drinking cold cocktails and soaking rays.

For now I’m stuck

In this muddy,

Sticky wetness

Which will soon turn hard.

I breathe in the co2

Because I have to.

There’s no other way

In the life I lead.

Apart from to go very far away.

If I were to leave my dreams behind

And grow my own vegetables

I could

Save myself

But no one else.

There’s a problem at the top

And it seeps to the bottom.

We’re constantly lied to.

Honestly, it feels like a crime,

What is happening to us.

Criminal behaviour

Carried out

By the people

Put there

To catch and imprison

Such criminal behaviour.

Who’s the criminal?

The powerful decide.

Hey look at that human over there! Doesn’t she wear such beautiful clothes. I wonder where she got them from. I wonder who made them. I wonder how much they got paid to make such beautiful clothes. Garments galore ‘round where I live. I sit and look on from the window above the busy street. The cars drive by and exhume the fumes. The lights on shops never stop. Consistently, constantly neon. The butcher shop sells predominantly meat, farmed producing methane. Next door to the butchers is vegan fast food, tasty and better for you, except it’s still fast food. It still uses energy to light the store, and to heat the oil to fry the fake chicken. Okay, the meat is gone, but the entire problem still remains.

Where does the waste go?

In the bin, obviously.

But after the bin…

After the bin is binned,

Do they then bin the binned bin?

When does the binning stop?

Never.

When will the binning stop?

Never.

When will we stop binning?

We can’t.