Some cultures do not mind their Capital
until it’s almost spent.
Others, do not care for their Rivers and Forests
until they are almost gone.
Oh America of the North, of the silver dollar of wilderness,
what will you leave your children?—but a tarnished nickel
of true forest, but two pence worth of a whole continent
once shimmering with free-flowing streams.
This they receive from us, and yet is they who
must pay the bills for the mountains of waste
we leave behind.