Document 45

What happened to the butterflies?

Author(s): George Hynd

Copyright holder(s): George Hynd

This is called 'What Happened to the Butterflies?'. It's a wee protest at what's actually happening to the world today.

When did ye last see a butterfly
Wi’ dancin’ wings go flutter by?
Or hear a lark sing in the sky
Its salutations from on high?

Where are the [?]lucks[/?]? The lintie's gone
White flashin’ jewels when sunlight shone.
And when was the last time ye heard a [?]goldie[/?] whistle
As it fed upon a flowerin’ thistle?

Ye see, God made they things to last
But now they're disappearin’ fast
As man lays waste to the countryside
They're scatterin’ insecticides.

The wee lochans that once held true to plenty
Now lie cald and bare and empty.
For them the price is far too dear
Oh [?]but[/?] man puts in the atmosphere.

[inaudible] there's now a muckle drain
That empties hills o' acid rain
And Mother Nature's nae solution
But tae dae wi’ that pollution.

The hedgerows have all been torn away
For bigger fields and higher pay
And Japanese tractors night and day do toil
As the wind blows away the precious soil.

"Produce, produce!" is the common market cry
As butter mountains reach the sky.
"Try new chemicals, we must grow more",
As rats get fat in the huge grain store.

The fish around our shores have gone,
Gutted by factory ships no more to spawn
And whit used to be a tasty appetizer
Is now turned into fertilizer.

Mighty tankers now our coastlines spoil
By spewin’ oot their discharged oil,
While sea-birds in their thousands die
Drowned in black gold no more to cry.

They'll be nae mair sun-bathin’ on holidays
Cos you'll soon be broon wi’ ultra-violet rays
And they fancy stuff you spray on your hair
Are knockin’ holes in the ozone layer.

So as man goes on for a' he's worth
Destroyed for me this planet Earth.
Stop it now before it's too late
Your self-destruction it can wait.

Or maybe some time a child will look
At a colour-picture in a book
And sit and think and wonder why
It never saw a butterfly.

If like me you're a glutton
And partial to a wee bit mutton,
Take that stuff noo you'll need medication
Cos even oor sheep have got radiation.

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What happened to the butterflies?

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