Ode to Progress

You've seen it all

From ends to earth to ends

You've grown tall over the rest

Surpassed all of your friends

You made things more

Made things less

But sill, more is more

And less is less

 

Plowed the fields

Downed the trees

Away with ye!

Old mountains of yesteryear

Down with the boundries of nature

And the world -

Your oyster

 

Grass and granite turn to concrete;

A great gray blanket to cover the earth

Mountains of rock become towers of iron and steel

Shining, alight, for all to see

Modern Towers of Babel

Crushing nature and life beneath

Leaden boots

Of metal

 

Progress! they cry. That magnificent thing.

And it is certainly grand

Buildings and complexes

Intricately convoluted, complex!

Spring up like weeds

Glass and metal, glowing

The wooden huts of the past are gone

Build! Build thy towers!

 

With lungs of iron and hands of steel

It sets forth

The great warrior, progress

Trample down all ahead

Any who oppose, leave behind!

And nothing can attest to the strength of progress -

The thing that can weather time.