LEAVE THEM A FLOWER

I speak on behalf of the next generation,
My sons and my daughters, their children to come.
What will you leave them for their recreation ?
An oil slick, a pile on an industrial slum.

Leave them a flower, some grass and a hedgerow,
A hill and a valley, a view to the sea.
These things are not yours to destroy as you want to,
A gift, given once, for eternity.

You plunder, you pillage, you tear and you tunnel,
Trees lying tumbled, roots reach for the sky.
Building a land for machines and computers,
In the name of progress the farms have to die.

Leave them a flower, some grass and a hedgerow,
A hill and a valley, a view to the sea.
These things are not yours to destroy as you want to,
A gift, given once, for eternity.

Fish in the ocean, polluted and poisoned.
The sand on the beaches, all stinking and black.
You, with your tankers, your banks and investments.
Say, "Never worry, the birds will come back".

Leave them a flower, some grass and a hedgerow,
A hill and a valley, a view to the sea.
These things are not yours to destroy as you want to,
A gift, given once, for eternity.

When the last flower has dropped it's last petal.
When the last concrete is finally laid.
The moon will shine, cold, on a nightmarish landscape.
Your gift to our children, this land that you made.

Leave them a flower, some grass and a hedgerow,
A hill and a valley, a view to the sea.
These things are not yours to destroy as you want to,
A gift, given once, for eternity.
For eternity, for eternity..............