An Old Building

An Old Building

by Marilyn Kortemeier

There is an old building over there

With it’s glass falling like crystal tears

On the deadened ground that lies all around

“Why? O why all this.

Because arrogant man thought he knew

The use land should be put to.

To rip the earth apart,

To bend the fire to his will

To make the water carry off filth

To make it fly into the air.

‘Do more, do faster, faster, faster, they said.’

And when the old building was not enough

And when the air and the water were poisoned

And when the earth had no more to give,

They moved off somewhere else

To do it all again