Grope to Cope

Progress removed my neighborhood friends,

the children of the families Harker, Henry, Hyers and Enns.

The local market with rickety wooden floors

was replaced by stores with automatic doors

The new infrastructure and business development plans

made many entrepreneurs and landowners raise their hands.

*

The jail house that once housed and fed transient hobos

just sort of disappeared quietly into the sprawling new roads.

The sound of bees and flies and familiar smell of the Ferrier shops,

Seagram’s distillery and the local Carling's Brewery that brewed hops

eventually faded and only the shell of the brewery was left to remain.

The rat infested creek was covered and hid societies new stain.

*

A drunk driver sped down the new road and killed my father.

Progress expects and accepts such losses as an annoying bother.

In spite of warnings, the watershed was sold to developers who

destroyed nature’s precious resource, because they wanted to.

They ignored environmental costs while advocating for their greed

saying - the development would supply housing - that was a primary need.

*

What now remains are the facades of many a building

that create the glow of the past the shines like golden guiding.

Change is happening. Perhaps it always has been so,

but the speed has increased, making it hard to keep up with the flow.

Malthus and Moore predicted rapid changes but is that no excuse

for the wealthy to acquire profit with no penalties for abuse.

*

The sting of ignorance increases the ache of nostalgia for innocence lost.

Resignation remains- growing populations and development have a cost.

It is not easy to climb this slippery slope,

as we spin on the Earth's unsteady gyroscope.

We must grope to cope, and hang on to a rope.

Wisdom and altruism offer some strength and hope.