Asset stripping

Asset stripping

The ocean bed

Is freshly made

For deep-sea mining

A new frontier

Colliers in Waterworld

Cowboys in facemasks

Chasing the dream

Drowning in an excess

Of machismo

For a few dollars more

Than the cost of a life

Going cheap

On the open market

As coral bleaching

Takes hold

From the bottom up

Dead sea scrolls

Are less well-read

Than everyday slogans

Though held

In reverence

As the quote goes

There is no treasure

In deserts

Any more

Even copper sheets

Wrapped in Papyrus

Are worth less

Than the time it takes to dig

Them out of an archive

Leave them be

In time

Overexposure

Will destroy

Everything

We have come

To understand

As evidence

Of unbridled progress.