Encroachment

Chainsaw teeth gnaw, gnash

Deep into heart of tribal homes

Rainforests groan, crash

Indigenous food plants ravaged

Illegal loggers raze, smash,

Spurn rights to food and shelter,

Cattle hooves trample tribal land

Now fragile, denuded, desolate,

Guarani constricted by sugar cane

Drinks sweet through Indian pain

Everywhere they seek palm oil.

Hunter-gatherer lands despoiled

Earth’s essential lungs deflated.

Miners ignore boundary lines

Raid Yanomami lands for gold

Toxic mercury poison flows  

Once isolated, now exposed

Native tribes meet new disease

Encroachment, infringement proceed

Jagged blades of chainsaws brandish

Virgin forests vanish