the most cynical old man i ever met

so where you come from you must’ve preserved the forest pretty well

said the old man i’d come to see and i couldn’t tell

if he was being sarcastic. must be, no, before you’ve trudged

all the way here to ask us to leave ours untouched

and everyone now turns to me. no, i say, but then we were fools

and i’m afraid he can tell from the ease, the slick dishonesty of a line often used

we didn’t know any better and so we floundered away our wealth

mindlessly. and now surrounded by concrete structures we repent

but the world’s one big home and we need the forests intact

for the generations to come we need this conservation pact

ah, so you made money from your forests and now drive fancy cars

on metalled roads and yet intact you need these forests of ours

our women and children  trudge to town on the mud roads

that flow like streams and i’m a thief if grazing my cow goes

into the forest across this stupid official fence

please explain to me how that makes any sense

and while we must now pay for wood to burn to keep us warm

i’ve heard you make money just making phone calls

forgive me but i’m afraid it is a little hard for us to see

the ecological services of an uncommon tree

how does one explain your urgent need to conserve it

to someone who needs money to pay the doctor’s fee

of course we see the streams going dirty and the soil going bad

and seeing the place you’ve grown up in being destroyed is always sad

it’s hard to see my son go find a job in town and now he’s even

paying for my daughter to go to a polytechnic for women

look at what a lovely place this still is peaceful lush severe

and yet all we ever hope for is to get away from here

so just go home and let us be i’m not asking you to feel guilty

about drinking milk out of plastic packets or all the utilities

that you take for granted and all the waste that you generate

there’s no point pointing fingers who are we to rebate

the world’s full of idiots and yet we have our lives to live

i used to care a lot and it’s not like i don’t anymore give

a damn. i too would like the trees to stand and not be taken away as logs

fine, stop us, but who’ll stop the loggers when the country’s going to the dogs

so my children have opted out. i too wish i could just go

buy meat in the market but i seldom have that kind of dough

i know you wish we weren’t here at all and we often wish the same for you

but your smoke-filled cities are the damned hell we’re all doomed to turn into

and of course we understand that it’s not long before the forests will all be gone

and we too see the rains going sparse and the summers getting hotter

so go back now, and fantasize about the world being one big home

as you masturbate and flush it away with a day’s worth of water