Stonewall

["When I moved out to Vancouver (Canada!)

In 1987, I took a walk down to a nearby river.

It looked calm and peaceful, yet alive.

A closer look (and smell) changed

My peaceful mood into a feeling of disgust

And disappointment:

The water was full of raw sewage and chemicals, Which I later found were spewing out from

A plant upstream, as well as a garbage dump located

Ever so brilliantly, fifty feet from the shoreline.

This was the first time I've ever really thought

Of about the permanent environmental damage being done and,

Although I'm not about to hold up protest slogans

And join Greenpeace, 'Stonewall'

Is my way of bringing the subject up for thought."]

Stonewall - go to bat

Unless you want to live like that

Stonewall - can't we see

We're our own worst enemy

A land said to have all

Wealth in land, in man

Qualities soon to exhaust

As man's greed poisons the land

Streams, once fresh

Were centres of life for so many a creature

Beauty without defence, polluted

Never to replenish

Collage, blue and green

Seen as golden industrial sites

Smudge as toxic pollutants

Destroy her remaining rights

The power of corporations

Spewing chemicals into the air

fines are imposed to discourage

But what's a dime to a millionaire

It's time to listen, and see the signs

It's time to listen and hear her cries

The one that gave us life is being burnt to the raw

Reaping unprotected riches

Human nature's self-destruction flaw

The power of corporations

Spewing chemicals into the air

Fines are imposed to discourage

But what's a dime to a millionaire