Progress? Poem by Lonnie Hicks

There was this struggling;
a knife-sharp shovel blade
dug deep in Earth's rib-cage.

tall tree limbs severed
which dropp to the ground;
habit homes invaded
and brook arteries polluted;
by drugs and poisons.

The warming eye of sun-
blinded by carbon rain
and stinging neon gas
make sun-sets
and sun downs
red red red.

The animals
flee
to hovels
beneath
the shrinking ground
and pavements slather
on more and more concrete.

Mountains recede
worn down;
the ocean waters
rise to heal the scars
to take back the
dusty dry lands.

Smoke stacks
and coal pits;
Nuclear plants
and nuclear fission.

All this
as the Earth sheds
a near final tear,
weeping
asking:
is this
Progress?