NEEDS
On a
Coventry hillside there’s nestled a landfill,
Or is the hillside the landfill,
snuggled into itself?
The relief map is changing, the
contours are spreading
As our valleys fill up and our
mountains expand
With items we purchased, dragged
home “for the children,”
Bagged up two years later and
hauled off as trash.
But the stuff in that diaper is
nearly worth gold,
The uneaten kiwi that’s starting
to mold,
And weeds from our gardens, half
licked candy canes
Go into the landfill and come out
as methane.
Now
methane’s a bad gas to let loose in the air
So most landfills torch it in
eternal flares,
What a partial solution, what a
waste of the gas!
Enter our Cooperative, eyeing the
trash.
We’ve ended dependence on a
source that’s not green:
If we’re talking “eternal,” its waste is obscene.
Members be
proud, we voted “yes” to conservation
And took a
big step with courageous innovation.
If it’s organic and starting to
rot,
Some leftover soup too long in
the pot,
Banana peels! Bananas! Toss organic waste with felicity,
If it makes it to
With respect
for our neighbors and with love for the land,
With respect for ourselves, if
that’s not too grand,
We can go even farther, reduce
our reliance
On energy
eating, greedy appliances.
We’ll consume with care and try
to replace
What we are taking from earth’s
heart and its face.
There should never be valleys
that fill up with trash
Or nukes that go haywire when oil
supplies crash,
So we’re making good progress, we
have so much to gain
When we cut back our “needs” and
make use of methane!
Geof
Hewitt
Co-op Member