Soapbox

Gone

It's a bright and sunny day along Bayou St. Denis,
a perfect day for fishing among the cypress trees
but there's no fish left for catching and the birds have fallen still-
like the bullfrogs and the gators, they've all left or been killed.

There's an oily scent of death carried on the evening tide,
nothing moving on the water or on the land nearby.
A mournful wind sighs through the sick and dieing trees
and at times it seems to whisper that it's all because of me.

   The Gulf is gone… the gulf is gone.
   There is blame enough to share, for the truth's hard to ignore:
   We'd rather lose the bayou than do without the oil.

They tell us we're at war, and the only way to win
is to start up that deep water drilling once again.
Like a drunken child with a rifle in our hands,
we're playing with forces we don't really understand.

We sigh and say we're sorry- but we'll do it all again
'Cause we just don't want to do without the stuff the oil brings.
Sure, we miss the pelicans, the shrimp and oysters too
but are any of us willing to do what we'd have to do
   

(bridge)  …to live without it? Yeah, I doubt it.

There's an island of plastic floating in the sea-
trash we thought we had to have but really didn't need.
It seems we can't be trusted not to break what we've been giv'n.
Go to war with the planet and you're losers if you win.

   The gulf is gone…  the gulf is gone….
   For at least a generation; tainted water, toxic soil
   but we'd rather lose the beaches than learn to use less oil.

Someday our grandchildren may ask us sadly, "Why?"
What was so important that the gulf coast had to die?
Will we answer, "Plastic pop bottles and toxic pesticides,
the A/C running ice cold and aimless Sunday drives…

…exotic foods flown in from half a world away
and Happy Meal toys that they kids just throw away.
We act like we're entitled, don't care about the cost
but now the bill's come due and we see how much we lost.

   The gulf is gone… the gulf is gone…
We're sorry 'bout the dolphins and the beauty we despoiled
but we'd rather maim the planet than give up the oil.
 

The Earth gives us so much, but we keep demanding more.
Is there nothing we won't sacrifice for just a little oil?