Smart!Centres (Walmart) applies
for London zoning by-law changes
so they can establish a Complex at
the corner of Meadowlilly Road South
and Commissioners East right next
to Meadowlilly Woods’ lovely stand,
that environmentally sensitive area
close to the Thames. Deep pockets
vie against deep wood. Development
vs. organic diversity. Tarmac vs. trillium
What do you love? The choice is yours,
in season: Nature’s long cycle or fake
hype selling discounted bargains months
before due date. Veracity vs. voracity.
Walmart’s pumped buys cost us dear in
exorbitant charges never marked down:
cheap overseas labour unrecognized,
deplorable working conditions ignored.
Walmart offers low, low prices way
beyond what we can humanly afford.
The tag you gleefully pay can’t account
for inevitable recompense in lost resource.
And the consequence? Invasive species
multiply in a virus of corporation logos
that we collect and prize in vain, while
native plants die out. Not a good deal.
What we don’t know, we can’t care for.
Meadowlilly Woods’ worth is now in flux.
How do you evaluate a loss of habitat
tamped down by asphalt, crushed by
power complexes where brand names
replace the reality of life that feeds us?
Smart!en up, Walmart. Organized to
oppose development, we won’t shop.
What do we pay for the irreplaceable
place if it’s lost? Memories all too soon
are boxed in by big stores selling greed.
Nostalgia like guilt is a sop to be sold.
“What’s a meadowlilly?” kids will ask,
reading a street name, its reality lost.
What do we tell them when simulacra
of names replace the fullness of life?
How do we appreciate the natural world,
changing, wild, free and our only home?
Ask what lasts. Glacial meltwater carved
a spillway through the Ingersoll moraine,
floodplain to terraced loam to upland clay,
Carolinian and northern Great Lake forest.
Over ten thousand years, so many species
found their place, settled and now co-exist.
Native phlox and poppies from an old farm.
Willows sun-sparkle green on warbler song.
Beech on the hill slope shelter Spring Beauty.
Hemlocks mingle over fern in lacy ravines.
A boy wades into the river, fixing his lure to
wait, just as still as nearby Great Blue Heron.
What cost beauty? What value do we place
on trail walks through harmonious complexity?
In the woods, you can breathe deeply and be
inspired. Here we know we belong, participating
in the co-creative process of simply living,
sensing continuous wholeness. Drawing
on the energy of nature, we emerge renewed
in a relationship of respect, understanding
what a wood is worth. Stand your ground!!
Penn Kemp
myspace.com/pennkemp
