Building, building...

~~It feels scary how quickly the countryside
Is being swallowed up by more building
And more new towns on green spaces wide
The rabbit warrens filled in…

It seems everywhere there is the construction
Of “stunning” new homes
(never mind the destruction)

They tell us that more building
Will mean more jobs:
Digging our way out of a recession
By digging over the land.

More accommodation, more roads
And car parks.  It seems…
Open areas are disappearing fast:
Villages engulfed by new estates.

It makes me smile in a cynical way:
Roads are named after
The various natural features
Displaced to make way for them.

And at what cost to our countryside?
Our wildlife?  To our meadows and trees?
Our children’s future?
(If we must have so many of them).

Is there no way out
Of turning field after field
Into a bleak grey urban sprawl-
Of desecrating area after area?

One day, in the not too distant future
The towns and cities will be all merged:
No space left.  Overcrowding.
  Queues.

Waiting lists.  Traffic jams
The jobs they promised all taken over by machines
(Self- service checkouts!)
and future generations will live
In what was once England’s green and pleasant land.