Poem: Smoke

Wednesday, March 4, 1998 - 11:00

Smoke

Smoke
Covering thousands of square miles
Choking millions of people.
The government blames the peasants
Then they blame the timber merchants
Then they blame the weather

Meanwhile
The lungs of the planet
are polluted
By governments and loggers
By greed and indifference
By corporate corruption
And the state prepares
To savage any protests.

People
Devout, trusting God
Pray fervently for a miracle.
Others beseech their leaders
For relief from the man-made blight
A few, a precious few
Point the finger
Tell the bitter truth
But they work underground
This bad air would kill these honest folk.

John McGill

From GLW issue 308

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In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us.

Green Left Weekly, launched in 1990 by progressive activists to present the views excluded by the big business media, is now Australia's leading source of local, national and international news, analysis, and discussion and debate to strengthen the anti-capitalist movements.