We stood and watched
We stood and watched the insects die
The bee, the wasp, the butterfly
The scarlet, spotted ladybird
All disappeared. Yes, nothing stirred.
The midges, gnats, and earwigs too
Had vanished from our field of view
And every beetle, moth and ant
No longer dwelt in bush or plant
The trees began to fade and dry
And slowly shrivelled up to die
No flowers bloomed in early spring
You couldn’t hear a blackbird sing
Feathered corpses on the ground
No more birdsong. Not a sound
Of robin, chaffinch, collared dove
No skylarks singing high above
The animals of wood and heath
That used to live their lives beneath
The azure blue of summer sky
Had crawled away to calmly lie
In holt and burrow, warren, lair
In sad acceptance dying there
The earth had dried a hardened crust
The soil a thin, infertile dust
The rivers empty, shrivelled weeds
No fishes swam between the reeds
No herons stabbed with pointed bills
No silver fish swam in the rills
No frogs or newts or warty toads
But carrion lay on the roads
We didn’t think to take more care
Of soil and water or the air
But let our greed and vanity
Bring us to this insanity
The world became so out of joint
Before we’d passed the tipping point
For we had left it all too late
To try and rehabilitate
The warming planet. Do not cry
We stood and watched the insects die
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