Where have all the wildlife gone?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Spoiled landscape, acrylic painting 

I laid down my fishing rod a long time ago,

     and I haven't fired a shot since then, too,

for the wild has shrunk, the places I used to go -

     the shores and forests - now I hardly know.

Where have all the wildlife gone? I think I know;

     I hiked o'er the hill for a bundle of wood,

waded downstream to complete my favored stew,

     progress was unheard of, and life was good.

Is progress taming the wild and farming the seas,

     building golf range on grasslands, houses on fields,

ranches, plantations of crops and forest trees -

     or progress an accident of growing needs?

When Nature becomes spent and overpowered,

      pushed by growing affluence and number,

the wild leaves the world in waste and disorder,

      and a lesson for us all to remember.~