People Power Poem by Peter J White

It’s now a hundred years, give or take a few, since Ford unfurled his flag
Turning out Tin Lizzys; filling every city drag with nimble
‘Horseless carriages’. Convenient it‘s plain, yet convicted, says the world,
Of noise, global warming, and many deaths as I’ll explain. Insatiable
Speed, much less tranquility of soul, rejected the role demanded to feed,
Brush and harness up the patient horse. But, carting oats and hay,
The leanest and wisest, still today choose the path then abandoned
Of pony and buggy, gladly accepting the chore of finding and spreading
Their horses’ bedding straw. Composting healthy dung makes sense,
While urban folk endure polluted masses of vehicle flatulence,
In streets cursed with fumes and smoke releasing into our lungs
Carcinogenic gases. But worse, four hundred million are obese.
Automotive comfort is killing us. Seduced by superfluity of food; appalled
By stink, by clamour and smashes may I appeal for pause, prelude and cause
Of change? If my dream comes true, silent, welcome in a smoke free zone,
I’ll live to own a car powered by pairs of treadles; PVC on welded frames,
Motor cycle wheels and chains; electric lights and signals from a dynamo;
30 miles an hour when carrying four; weighing just 300 pounds, no more.
Conserve our fuel, Shell, BP, flung a prodigal’s libation into the sand for years.
Desalinate sea water with it; re-mould the world’s farm land with irrigation,
Raising food output twenty fold to feast the famished nations. Not least, will
Someone build my little flyer, costing nothing to run except my own spare tyre,
And I’ll away, footloose on Saturday when, not your expensive motor car,
But my kids and me at large, will be kings of the road - free of charge.