The Earth Poem

By Russell Ndoboke

I live in a planet that’s not very true

my planet’s earth, but it’s not very new.

it’s usually shiny and bright,

and all the things you wished for, you think you can find,

and when it was morning,

you wished it was night,

and when it was night, you wished it was morning,

and then it dawns on you

maybe it’s all just a lie.

Maybe climate change isn’t really a fancy word

I guess that explains the many times we got bored

when it was time for social sciences,

but what we didn’t know

was that the sun and the moon had come together to form alliances,

and that the aftermaths of that would be environmental defiances, yes, 

I live in a planet that’s not very true

my planet’s Earth, but it’s not very new

I couldn’t stay in Mars, in Venus; 

I couldn’t live in Mercury, too,

so I’m stuck,

stuck here in this goddamn zoo, 

in this goddamn zoo,

in this goddamn zoo!

I’m stuck here,

where moths and rusts feed,

and floods and crops reap,

and dogs and laws keep,

but, I can’t do nothing about it.

I watched the oil roll and spill because the pipelines were left open again

I call out to my mother to take out her clothes

because when the sun shines, you know it means rain

I head out, I’m naked,

I dive into the pool, but I can’t swim,

the pollution, the erosion,

I don’t wanna be the concept for the 2024 New York film

with the theme:

‘The man that never saw 2025’

I wanna stay alive.

So I stay there for a while,

I take a quick bath and I head out,

I can’t fill my cups, my jugs, even tho’ I know there’s gon’ be a drought,

I head back to the lobby,

the fire - that’s coming

it touches my soul, my whole, my being,

I can’t go back home cause I know I sinned 

against my father

the day I told him to walk out of my life 

and never return,

the day my wife gave birth to twins,

but none of them were born.

The mountain screams of children missing,

as families watch, couples tongue-kissing,

deforestation, the nation I’m in

reminds me every single minute of my sin,

reminds me of my mother on life support,

but no oxygen.

So, yeah,

I live in a planet that’s not very true

my planet’s Earth, but it’s not very new

I couldn’t stay in Mars, in Venus;

I couldn’t live in Mercury, too

so I'm stuck

stuck here in this goddamn zoo,

in this goddamn zoo,

in this goddamn zoo,

Photo Credits: Space Wanderers@ Facebook.com