Polemic 03 Peace In Our Time Poem by Stewart McKenzie

There are no innocent bystanders.
Dependencies entangle us all.

War lurks in a tank of gas,
Slavery in a bag of sugar,
The death of oceans in a fish filet,
The melting of icecaps in a journey.

Vegans play at being herbivores.
“MEAT IS MURDER! ” They cry
As they pick up their vegetable produce at the Safe Way
Built for them by top predators
On the highest link of the food chain.
Nothing, at least, will be eating them.

Rich environmentalists from the temperate forest,
Long since felled to profit their ancestors,
Fly down to Rio to explain to poor farmers
Why they should not cut down the rainforest.

Investment bankers in their high offices are surprised
When victims of NoPitiBank capitalism treat them as enemies.

Diamonds prove hard enough to scratch flesh,
See the blood in the sparkle.

America diets while Africa starves.

No-one is innocent, we are all responsible.
Besides, there is nowhere by to stand.
Here is all there is.

And all this before the broadband internet!