Who’s Really in Control?

Who’s Really in Control?

You throw your unwants on the ground of my home

Yet you call it yours

You depend on my hard work to provide for your family

Yet you don’t believe so

Your life, the way you work, depends on me

Yet you continue to ignore me

I admit you are clever and inventive,

Yes you have split the atom

But that atom created nuclear war fare.

Yes cars are convenient

But you have made the thermostat go haywire

You have put the earth under a heat trapping blanket

You have ruined the beauty God has given you

You destroy the arctic floor for oil

You harvest minerals from oceans depth

It’s shameful, it’s disgusting

I have the power, I am in control

Yet you hide behind your neon gods

You have taken for granted the gift I have given you

You are in trouble, I am your solution

You now need me

Need me to fix your mistakes

But I could get rid of each of you life sucking creatures

The water would flow on

The sun would continue to shine

Rain would continue to fall

And the earth would continue to spin

The ground of my home would be fresh

No more unwanted possessions

I have the power, I am in control

And unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot

Nothing is going to get better.

It’s not.

“Who’s Really in Control?” by Jenna Traub is an interesting take on society destroying the earth. It’s a free verse poem with some repetition throughout the poem. The narrator is mother nature and she’s telling humanity they need to get it together otherwise this earth will fall apart. She starts off by saying this earth is her home, meaning that she’s in control and we are just visitors. She quotes the Suzuki essay on how humans are destroying the environment. She explores the inquiry question how do we cope with shame by saying we don’t, we hide behind our phones and technology, our neon Gods which is a direct allusion to The Sound of Silence. She also mentions God which is interesting as Mother Nature and God are both powerful people, but when she says “you have ruined the beauty God has given you.” She means that God created this world but now Mother nature takes care of it and is in control of what happens now.  She makes you think that without humanity the Earth would still be here and “her home would be fresh.” Lastly she quotes the Lorax which switches the mood of the poem into hope. While the rest of the poem is despairing. Mother nature is saying that we can fix the problems we have made if we care a whole awful lot.