Stolen Dreams (Poem)

The children of tomorrow
Will ask what we were thinking
When we felt we could borrow
Their futures without blinking

It is their world we plunder
It is their time we squander
As foolishly we blunder
And aimlessly we wander

We can never own the Earth
We are just its caretakers
But it will cost them the Earth
If we are careless takers.

Consuming and denuding
Nature’s beautiful treasures
Drilling, spilling and killing
For our own guilty pleasures.

We have stolen all their dreams
With our empty words and acts
Yet their unforgiving screams
Echo scientific facts.

We are almost out of time
To return some things we stole
We cannot take a lifetime
Or we’ll take the planet’s soul.

We now see what must be done
No more lies and distraction
Our leaders must stand as one
And take decisive action.

We will keep oil in the ground
All energy will be green
We will rewild all around
And the oceans we will clean

We will protect all wildlife
On the brink of extinction
And ensure all human life
Is seen without distinction.

We will lay green foundations
No matter how hard it seems
We will unite our nations
And return some stolen dreams.

By Ciara Muldoon
Co-founder of SearchScene.com, the charitable search engine that protects the planet and your privacy while you search the web.

Written 22 February 2021

This poem was inspired by Greta Thunberg’s powerful speech at the 2019 UN climate action summit in New York.