Strike For Climate Day Poem by Jim Yerman

The Earth now lay in ruins
only one survivor remained
With his final message…
he wanted to explain….

I was part of a race of humans he wrote…
who didn't know how to behave…
Who didn't understand what would happen
Who took more than we gave…

The things we did to this planet
amounted to nothing more than theft.
we took
and we took
and we took
and now there's nothing left…

I thought like many others…
I could abuse, destroy and deprave her
I, too, ignored the warning signs…
I thought someone else would save her.

We destroyed the air we breathe
our rivers our forests and our lakes….
Perhaps the next people who come along
can learn from our mistakes…

How sad…for we all knew the answers
but never really tried…
Then the man put down his pen
and took one more breath…
before he died.