An orange with an attitude approached the microphone,

the citrus all applauded and he spoke:

"I'm not the kind of fruit to stand around all day and moan,

but lately, those darn humans are a joke!

"With orchards planted far too thickly they demand a crop -

a bumper crop - from trees weighed down by stress,

they build us up with drugs so we look healthy in the shop,

but inside we are actually a mess!"

"Hear, hear!" a watermelon cried, "they force us all to grow

no matter what the season - good or poor,

each harvest must outweigh the last, come sunshine, rain or snow,

they're never satisfied, they must have more!"

"My tree," a nectarine complained, "has cried all winter long,

they pump her full of hormones every day,

oh sure, the fruit looks healthy, but the tree's not very strong,

I'm quite afraid that she might pass away!"

"They pick us," yelled an apple, "then inject us with this stuff,

we get the extra shine that's wanted now,

but as you know, just growing up is really hard enough,

and all the kids would eat us anyhow!"

"I've heard enough!" declared a grape - a cheer came from his bunch,

"I say we strike - from lemon to beetroot!"

"Hooray!" a big banana cried, "so now when they have lunch

we'll see how much they like it without fruit!"

It might have been an action that would turn the world around,

to show men what their plants were really worth,

to make all people think about what comes out of the ground

and spare a thought for poor old planet Earth.

It ended there - the corporate spies had heard about the plan,

a squad of chefs arrived and forced a truce,

before they knew it, all the fruit were sitting in a can,

the label read: "Fruit Salad - Extra Juice!"

more of my ENVIRONMENT POEMS here