“All Rise!” the bailiff shouted,
As the door to the judge’s chambers flung open.
Commandeering the entryway, a brilliant figure,
with corn-rowed hair, wrapped like a knit cap,
skin the color of fertile garden loam,
shaped like a Neolithic fertility goddess,
draped in brilliant green silk,
slender hands perched on mountainous breasts,
lolling down to a soft globe of belly and buttocks.
She seemed to float to her position
behind the bench,
grasping the table with both hands,
and exerting considerable effort
to lower herself to her chair.
Seeing her,
any hopes the defendants had
of buying their way out of this case
were immediately dashed.
This time, at last,
due process would be served
by Judge Mother Earth!
Through the sweltering days that followed,
witness after witness testified,
of the harms perpetrated on humanity
and all manner of life
by a gang of corpratistas,
posing as human
but lacking any iota of a soul.
Scientists testifying for both sides
were reminded repeatedly by the judge
to speak in terms a child could understand.
And for that purpose,
a row of orphans occupied the front row,
their posture deteriorating
as the trial progressed
and evidence of the extent of the crime
was revealed.
The defendant was a monolithic monster,
named Monsanto –
a thousand men in thousand dollar suits,
joined at the hip:
executives, lobbyists, pseudo-scientists, shareholders and politicians,
moving in lock-step to the witness stand,
answering each question in one voice:
“We plead the fifth.”
“Is it true you knew that glyphosate,
the active ingredient in your broad-spectrum herbicide, Roundup,
which was being generously doused
on genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops,
causes nutritional deficiencies
and systemic toxicity?”
The little ones raised their hands and pleaded,
“We don’t understand,”
and Judge Earth asked the attorney
to rephrase his question,
“Simple, simple,
make it simple please!”
The prosecution tried again:
“Is it true you knew that Roundup was responsible for causing
an explosion of chronic diseases?”
The children groaned.
“We plead the fifth,”
the corpratista chorused.
“Is it true that when an organic beekeeper
produced evidence that Roundup Ready crops
were causing bee colony collapse,
you had the Department of Agriculture
confiscate his bees, beehives, and equipment,
destroying fifteen years of research
and all incriminating evidence?”
The children wept.
“We plead the fifth,”
was what the corprtistas said,
But we knew they meant yes.
And so it went for hours and days,
with the evidence mounting
in a million horrendous ways
that before us stood
the most evil entity ever to exist,
with only this belated pursuit of justice,
inspiring us to persist.
Life as we knew it
was in its final throws of collapse,
All it’s amazing systems and species
would soon be a thing of the past,
and in this makeshift courtroom,
for what it was worth
we prayed justice would prevail
at last.
Finally, the prosecution rested its case.
The defense had nothing defensive left.
Mother Earth held her head.
Those in the courtroom held their breath.
“I hereby find the accused guilty of genocide,
of crimes against humanity and every living thing,
of blind greed and evil beyond all conception.”
She let loose a sigh that echoed back a billion years.
“There is no punishment to fit this crime.
There is no retribution that can possibly right the wrong,
nothing left to repair,
nothing, nothing at all…
we are all finished… caput… fini… done.
Guilty or innocent, it matters not, no one has won.”
She lifted her weary body from its perch,
pointing a finger toward the masses
solemnly standing in the back,
for as far as one could see
“To you I ask this,” she thundered!
“Why did you leave it to me to fight this alone?
Why couldn’t you stand up to this beast
while we still stood a chance,
when there were so many of you,
and they were so few?”
We had no reply.
She banged her gavel and sighed,
“Earth is adjourned. Goodbye”
