Owning the Land
Robin Helweg-Larsen
Who owns the whole land, the countryside, city, and nation?
The question of ownership is nothing,
Compared to the question of caring or not caring,
of caretaking or carelessness,
of clean land and clean government.
There is no outside ownership, no more by humans than by birds or insects.
The planet owns itself, and we all walk over it,
and we own ourselves and our lives.
Some used to say: “The sun never sets on the British Empire.”
Others answered: “Because God wouldn’t trust an Englishman in the dark.”
Then the sun set on that Empire.
The dark is coming on, and the rain.
What can we do but light our candles, open our umbrellas,
let the little light we have be caught by the brightest umbrellas,
and work through the dark till the rain has stopped,
and the people who care for people, not for ownership, take charge in the light.
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Robin Helweg-Larsen's poetry is published in the UK, US, Canada, Netherlands, India and Australia. He is Series Editor for Sampson Low's Potcake Chapbooks - Form in Formless Times, and lives in his hometown of Governor's Harbour in the Bahamas.