Submitted into the November 2021 CGBoost Competition entry “World in a Bottle”. Placed 8th out of 230 entrants.
Perpetual growth,
With endless consumption,
Nothing’s ever enough,
Programmed from conception.
Perpetual earning
Keeping economic wheels turning
A system-shaped cage
Enslaving hearts that are yearning
For freedom and beauty
For warmth and fresh air
For love and for silence
For deeply felt care
For an end to gossip
And getting “one-up”
No vapid exchanges
Selfies, or thumbs up
Avarice and greed
Extend way beyond needs
While the planet gasps
For the air that it needs
We are the problem
Mankind leaves its toll
This planet is suffering
It’s on us you know
But the wheels keep turning
As the system demands
A planet scarred and stripped bare
We’ve blood on our hands