You Are Not Small

Inspired by Lucy Hawking’s You Are Not Small.

Perhaps you think you’re very small,
But really that’s not true at all
Don’t think there’s nothing you can do
Because there’s you and you and you.

We’ve been bad to Mother Earth 
Doing things since our very birth
Starting with diapers until our death
We each must stop and take a breath.

True, there’s been an evolution
But haven’t we’ve sped up pollution?
We’re taking more than we are giving
Which makes it hard to go on living.

The entire world has seen this summer
Planet earth’s hotter — what a bummer!
Al Gore and others gave us warning 
How we brought on global warming.

Our continued use of fossil fuel
Hurts this sapphire and emerald jewel
Too much electricity and wasting water 
What are we leaving our sons and daughters?

Killing off species on land, sea and air
They are innocent and it’s just not fair
But we too are definitely diminished
If these acts aren’t stopped and finished.

What we continue doing is really tragic 
To oceans, lakes and rivers with plastic
Each day we must work hard and toil
To stop putting toxins into our soil.

There’s a very strong and imminent moral
We can see it in the deepest coral
We know that something isn’t right
Our actions are bleaching it white.

This summer gave us a bit of a tasting
We haven’t the luxury to continue wasting
It’s time for us to step up to the plate
RIGHT NOW, and not some future date.

From our failing hands to you we throw
The torch so we let everyone know
We really can’t go on much longer
Working as one will make us stronger.

We all must join this current stage
It doesn’t matter what your age
Let’s stop what has gone so bad
And cease destruction that’s so sad.

We will not get back what we lose
Options to change are ours to choose
No longer can we sit and wait
Because we’re facing a doomsday fate.

Our precious Earth cannot stop crying
This is because we are not trying
So we must act extremely fast 
Correcting wrongs made in the past.

Perhaps you think you’re very small,
But really that’s not true at all
Don’t think there’s nothing you can do
Because there’s you and you and you.

Please leave your comments below. 

Read more by Ada Mark Strausberg.