“A tower,every hour.”

As a 90’s kid, I spent most of my Springs
watching birds
collect straws
for their nests.
Springs now are humid, clammy, rainy
and quite bird-free
because we need “a tower, every hour.”

As a 90’s kid, so much of my rural visits were about
ponds and ducks in the ponds
and swans and some more ponds.
Now, those ponds house concretes,
those ducks dead to the ground.
Probably eaten,
and we need “a tower, every hour.”

As a 90’s kid, my zoo visits
had at least one mandatory story about some wild predator,
especially some mean lion or tiger,
and their attack on civilians or poachers.
Now, tigers are endangered
with ninety seven percent of their population wiped out,
but we need “a tower, every hour”

As a 90’s kid, I watched Jaws
and was terrified and fascinated
by the sheer size and magnanimity of the shark.
And now…
A “dead shark washes ashore, neck bound with plastic.”
A dead whale had “40kg plastic in its stomach.”
C’mon, we do need “a tower, every hour.”

As a 90’s kid, I went to the University in the late 2010s
and I had written a piece on a little bird in my first year there.
Guess what?
The little bird doesn’t live there any longer,
neither does so many other birds.
Migratory birds have stopped visiting.
God knows if they are still living or have gone extinct.
Little sparrows no longer frequent
pecking on the glass of my window.
Even then we need “a tower, every hour.”

We need our Starbucks plastic cups for #igstarbucks.
We need our air conditioners and coolers and heaters.
We need our fancy beach straws with a sliced lemon on top.
We need over indulging shopping paradises and top notch housing concretes.
We need our internets and WiFis.
We all need (maybe, should be guilty of?) “a tower, every hour.”

Picture Caption:

Go go fly away,
to a home to know
to a home you own.
Greedy homo sapiens shall know your worth,
once they have reaped the benefits
of the last seeds sown.

(Picture taken from a friend, Sayanti Bose’s, collection.