Shining blue

A mother weeps - she has to send her children to the mines, for shining blue, the poisonous cobalt

Men, women, children, the Congolese people, dying young for scraps of money

The ground beneath their bare feet roars with richness and they never get to see it

The DRC is soaked in its people's blood, being torn apart for its resources 

Millions of lives lost for the mineral blue, and more will be lost too

 

This blue fuels our batteries, our screens drip with the blood of the people, that never saw the fruit of their labour

For green energy we need more blue, more lives lost, there is a human cost, people

But our consciousness is clear, we are saving nature, no tears shed for the people whose blood is spilled for it

The eyes blue as cobalt, we don't seem to see the pain, or we do, and then we turn away

The Congo is bleeding, it weeps for its people, but nobody weeps for the Congo

Author's Note

The DRC is bleeding so we can have our electronics. I implore you - don't buy electronics you don't need. There is this book I found that I am going to start reading soon, it's called Cobalt Red on the topic if you wanna know more. You can also look up many great articles and video lessons. As for helping nature there is a browser called Ecosia that plants trees with the money from your searches, it's completely free

Reviews

[Michael Sun Bear]

A very powerful poem Adriana and it opened my eyes to the situation in the Congo, I had not been aware. Thanks for the reminder about Ecosia. I had it installed on an iPad that completely died and I was without a device for quite awhile. I had used Ecosia for a couple of years. I will check it out again.

[Adriana]

I am really glad my poem was helpful and that you liked it