I breathe blue and green

and feel the air on my face

while the wind pushes the clouds

in their playful race

the ponds are a sheer shelter

for fishes and frogs

while the crickets accompany

the birds in their songs

the river flows calmly

in the middle of one land

one home, one host

one respected older friend

Seven generations

lived here before me

seven more generations

are meant to be…

… … … … … … …

These lines

are a lie

… … … … … … …

… I’m breathing grey

feeling the chemicals in my mouth

while the chimneys shoot out

their rude, toxic clouds

the ponds are acidic

I can’t swim, nor fishes can

and the frogs falling in

are skeletons in the end

the river flows resigned

dividing the land in two

the neighbor is now a stranger

and the sibling is too

Seven generations

lived here before me…

… but I am the parasite

threatening the tree.

Living once

and living for all

living to the fullest

living each goal

Living exploiting

just because I can

living proud of

the supremacy of the white man

How could I think

this egotism was right

how could I believe in it

and in its name even fight!

I stole my offspring’s future

I wonder how I could dare

but I won’t be anymore

the one that does not care

So, what am I loyal to?

Should it be my land?

The planet as a whole,

to the smallest grain of sand?

One day I’ll find out the what,

the how and the why

I am supposed to do

in this time under this sky

meanwhile I search as hard as I can…

… until my heart will quit being sore

and its rotten side won’t be here anymore.

Poem written by Alice Damiano, E4A McGill student during the Climate Justice field course hosted by York University in Toronto, May-June 2017, and inspired by the Toxic Tour in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada – thank you to Lindsay and Vanessa Gray. This content was originally published on Alice Damiano’s personal blog, click here for the original post.

Please note that this is a poem, therefore the description of the environment is not accurate.