Screams and wails split the air
Hollow faces, matted hair
The dying human race is at its knees

Hunched forms smothered among the fumes
That gathered over many moons
Spread by those who simply couldn’t care

But there is a sheltered place I know
Formed by someone long ago
Where a shaft of sunlight filters through the dust

Through the throttling smog it soaks
The drug on which our planet chokes
And comes to rest upon the earth

And underneath this ray of hope
Upward to the light it gropes
A crack in the concrete bears a flash of green

A lonely seedling makes its stand
Against the twisted ways of man
And unknown and alone it climbs the beam

The miracle of photosynthesis
A silent struggle, pant and hiss
Flowers and seeds rain from wooden limbs



And the trees tower above the fumes
That gathered over many moons
Free at last, they reach to kiss the sky