Developers' Greed

When you build so high

Do you think of others

As you take their sky

When you take away the light

Leaving us to live in dark

Do you pay us for our sacrifice

Or are you ignorant

 

When you build your cities

Is there room for grass and birds

That fly beneath the trees

Or do you leave us

Concrete and stone

To live alone.

 

Is there space

For people to embrace

Their need to be

A family

Or did you forget

In haste

and greed

To think of that

 

When the buildings age

And their luster fades

Do you care to ask

For some repair

Or do you let them rust

And fall to dust

In an ugly mess

Of urban suicide

 

While you move away

And build elsewhere

Again, taking someone’s air

Until one day

There’s nothing left

And you choke

on your own

selfishness

 

Dubai 2007