Just a picture of a sunset from twenty years ago
A picture of a tragedy, as I later came to know.
See that chimney in the background
Rearing up into the sky,
With a plume of black smoke
Lazily drifting by?
Where the prevailing wind could bring
The smoke's detritus back to the ground
They did a study of that area
And for some miles around:
Clusters of child leukaemia far above
The national average were disclosed
And that along with local protests
Caused that factory to be closed.
It was moved to South America
Where people didn't know or care
About the devastation and pollution
That could be would be taken there:
And of course where life
And work comes more cheap
Reflecting rather nicely
In a healthier profit sheet.
Back at the site in Yorkshire
They moved lorries full of soil
Spoiled with toxic metals waste,
Not your normal industrial spoil,
The only really effective way
To try and put right
The environmental damage
Done to that site.
(And maybe hide from the judgement of time
The real extent of any committed crime)
Just a picture of a sunset taken years ago
But on the ground no chimney now there
So at least those toxic elements
Have been removed from our air.
I wonder if things have since changed since then.
Do they consider more the planet and people's health?
Or do they still beaver on regardless
In the pursuit of ruthless wealth.