[Poem] The Black Plague

The following is a poem I wrote about oil... (with a picture of Canada's disgusting Tar Sands gigaproject beside it).

The Black Plague

It’s really a marvel! A marvel!
Starts off as black sliminess extracted from the Earth –
But then you refine it, barrel it, sell it,
ship it, sell it, pump it, sell it,
Let it course through the veins of the malleable alloy beast –
like blood courses through us – and
vroom vroom, you’re on your way!
Black gold is really a marvel!

Kerosene, plastics, asphalt,
Fertilizers, propane, cosmetics,
GAS-O-LINE!
It’s really a marvel what you can do with this stuff!
A marvel!

The kerosene lamp, the combustion engine,
Cars, trucks, trains,
Airplanes, airplanes aero planes!
Home heating – it’s energy man –
it keeps our civilization growing.
It keeps us warm.
It’s our blood, our blood I say.

In the Middle East, in Angola, in Yucatan,
In Siberia, in Venezuela, Alaska,
and now in Alberta.
Drive west from the east –
cross through Lloydminster –
a town cut in half by the border.
Keep driving, and on the outskirts of town
the liquefied petroleum wells become
visible from the highway;
dotting the farmers’ fields,
on small circular plots,
a conglomerate of pipes
tangled around a large tank or two.
I spy with my little eye
something that is…
black and gooey!

The Cold War, The OPEC crisis,
The Gulf War, the Iraq War,
THE WAR ON TERROR.
First came the automobile, then came the wars.
After all, we’ve got to keep the price low.
Ten cents a gallon. Ten cents a litre.
Twenty cents, Fifty cents, SEVENTY FIVE CENTS!
A dollar a litre, more!
Fuck public transportation! I want to drive my car to work!
How many Iraqi lives does it take to drive my car to work?

Carbon Dioxide, emissions,
The International Panel on Climate Change.
First came the wars, then came global warming.
But you’ve got to keep the wells open, the pipelines flowing –
or we’ll collapse.
We need it!

Standard Oil, crude oil, motor oil, peak oil!
It’s a drug, a drug I tell ya!
It made us, and now it will destroy us.
Some call it black gold.
But it’s the black plague.