Third Planet from the Sun

Daily writing prompt
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

Flags are fun and great for games
But the earth beneath our feet is all we have.

If the all this tumultuous connection has shown us something
Then that humans are very much alike:

We need food and family, community and water to thrive.
We need joy and laughter and those who hold us in our sorrow to survive.

We are inquisitive
We are curious
We are tenacious
And sometimes wild

Dangerous when stupid
Sublime when inspired
And our kindness is near-divine

We are so ridiculously alike
It’s upsetting
Each you a me
Each me a you
Yes, and the idiots, too
Unfortunately

From the least of these
To our greatmothers and forefathers
All so unhappily one

We are far too much the same
No matter how hard we try
To believe otherwise

And so yes
Flags are great and fun for games
But the ground beneath our feet is all we have.

#sunday

© 2025 threegoodwords

So, about that…

What were your parents doing at your age?

So there was this planet, see.

It was a pretty blue and a mountainous green.
It had weather and nature and ecosystems,
White rhinos, coral reefs, and bees.

And there was this generation.
A very numerous generation.
So numerous, they were named after their numerosity.

And The Numerous had everything they could wish for, materially;
In comparison to everyone else before them, that is.

And this Numerous Generation looked at the blue planet
So pretty and healthy and green
The planet with the good weather, the ecosystems,
And all those necessary bees
They looked and probed and satellite and decided:

Nice little planet you have there.
Shame if something would happen to it…

And they happened to it.
All at once.
All the time.
Everywhere.

Now, The Numerous (and their 2.0s) will tell you:
Everyone uses plastics!
Cars are amazing!
You’re one to talk!
How were we to know?
Why are you making this a thing?

Or they will use words like “ungrateful” and “whiny” and “weak”.

Some (many) do love the blue planet dearly.
And they try, sincerely, to save it
To keep it clean.

But too many of The Numerous (and their 2.0s) couldn’t give two figs
About whether the only home we have still exists
Once they no longer have use of it.

And that is a crying sin shame.

© 2025 threegoodwords

© vishal banik, unsplash.com

creature comforts

beach wild

The problem is:
how to be good and have everything,
how to do well without being bad about it,
how to have your cake and eat it all.

The problem is:
growing up with all those nifty nice,
smooth and sweet, industrialised
creature comforts

And then realise, a bit too late maybe
that to make them so nice
at such a great price
very many that live and breathe and grow
in spaces far away from your own
are brought verily verily terribly low
all the way to the borders
of those awful terms: pollution,  extinction
all out destruction.

And yet you were told,
over and over and oh so bold,
You, yes, you: you are the good one.

*

The problem is: what do you do
now that you’ve gotten used to
those comforts that are just too good
and you need them too, to survive, stay alive,
up to date and in time
in this superfast, new and improved
digital age of ultracool

where the phones are smart
and the tablets tools
where cats go viral
and ignoring that may brand you a fool
in the race to be first, to be in the know
of everything at work, at home, in school,
in the world…

For this planet that is Home
our home, no other
just one, you hear, just one

Our planet is now so connected
the globe seems like a crowded ball
full of people shouting, tweeting
trying, spying, lying
through their virtual teeth

simply to stay connected
and not fall off the face of the earth
deep down into has-been’s, where-are-they-now’s,
and what-happened-to’s,
that dreaded place: ‘I don’t know’,
that awful place: ‘Who?’

For We, the creatures, we cannot stand our own discomfort,
that tiny little feeling
that something’s not quite right
somewhere, somehow…

No, We, the creatures, we create our comfort
by telling, typing, filming, sharing
to make sure someone is there
to prove yes, you, you are real
there is nothing to worry about
move along here
and yes, we like you
see the numbers, it’s all there
it’s not a dream, it’s all true:
you really are the good one,
you, yes, you, and you too.

*

So, what to do now, now,
yes right now
before the sun grows dark in our eyes
before those infamous four riders
come bounding down
announcing, business like,
that it is time, it is time
for several plagues, lots of fire, unprecedented disaster,
that will all happen to you and you and you
and all the me’s existing, all the good ones too.

For the Riders don’t care about clicks and tweets
anything virtual, in the air
Once they arrive
it’s dislike time,
and it’ll keep persisting
no matter how others may keep on insisting
that it’s all lies lies lies!

The Four really don’t care
standing at the sidelines
in their fine suits and silk ties
reading through the script, announcing how
the winds will burn, the skies will fall
and the earth will burst like water
at half past two, precisely
only *breaking news*: it will be hottest, hottest lava
Not water at all
that, my dear viewers, will be very much gone.

And when the seas rise and the lands fall
from their civilised heights
We’ll be Back to Nature all right
And know it as it was once known
as what we, the creatures, live and breath and walk on
the real Mother of All.

The problem is:
that all this bother will happen
just when you sat down to drink that 
latte
and listen to another hand-played, over-made
hyperlinked song.

© 2014 threegoodwords

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