Dear Nature

Dear Nature,

I write to you

On behalf of all mankind,

Partly in apology

And partly in plea

To spare those who deserve sparing.

If you must,

Wipe out

Those who don’t.

On this planet

Of water,

Of oxygen

And food

You provide a home

With all we could need.

We could look at the mountains,

The sun rise

And storms,

Awestruck, in wonder

At your beauty and power.

We could witness volcanoes

And earthquakes and floods,

Bowing our heads

With gratitude

For the times when you do not choose to destroy us.

The Grand Canyon,

Uluru,

Everest

And more

Are there as reminders

Of you beauty and craft

In shaping your world –

A world we are privileged to share.

But instead,

We fight wars,

Murdering millions and more

Over money and oil

And land we have claimed

As precious,

Though we do not value it.

In our rush to be wealthy,

We neglect to take care,

Polluting your rivers,

Your land

And your air.

We can’t even care

For the people we love;

The elderly wise, who raised us from birth

And cherished us, as you do

On this planet,

Nurturing with the oxygen of love,

Feeding us

And providing shelter

Through the fruit of their labour.

Do we cherish them back?

Do we nurture them, as they grow old?

No!

We lock them away

As their memories fade,

Or they forget how to walk

And mumble and talk

Of things we can’t see.

We hide them in places,

Conveniently labelled

‘Care Homes’.

Don’t care homes, in reality.

We make excuses

(I heard them just!)

About having to work and bettering ourselves,

Ignoring the scandal of millions

Locked away,

Held captive by their age.

And what do we gain?

All eyes, it seems,

Are fixed on the prize

Of money and comfort,

Of wealth of possessions.

Compassion and caring ignored.

We teach our young that success is material reward.

Stickers and stars

And pieces of card

Saying

“You are the best.”

Glittering prizes to light up their eyes

And train them.

The value of achievement

Is under valued

Or often ignored as a thing in itself.

The reward is the thing.

Go for Gold!

For these things, on behalf of mankind,

I apologise.

And now,

Dear Nature,

You have sent us a final reminder

Of the debt we owe.

A reminder that we are your guests.

And people will die.

And this is my plea.

I plead that you spare

The old and the young,

The sick and infirm

And those who have lived to survive.

With your virus.

If you must make us pay,

Please target the guilty:

The selfish and greedy

Who have put wealth before compassion;

The arrogant and proud

Who have put aggrandisement before society;

Those who would eat to excess

While kicking a man who lives in a blanket

And gazing through a woman wrapped in a scarf,

With out-stretched hand

And pleading eyes.

Your virus is making a distinction

Between who it will kill

And who it will spare.

And I plead with you now

To spare the innocent;

To spare the weak

And vulnerable.

Spare the old, with a twinkle in their eye

And the young with a song in their smile

And wonderment at your beauty

In their eyes.

To finish:

I do not ask for death for the rest.

My compassion will not let me wish upon them

What they have wrought upon others.

But if you must have your victims,

Please re-consider how you choose them,

Dear Nature.