WHAT ONCE WAS IS HERE NO MORE

This is the most obscene scene ever seen. Where once nature bloomed everywhere, where pure blue skies met admiring eyes and the ocean washed an empty shore and the nearest Wal-Mart store could not be found for a thousand miles around, where the only structure on the ground is a lone thatched hut that is tumbling down and the only hint of the insanity of humanity is the vanity of initials carved in the trunk of a tree by a tourist who wants to be sure the birds and flowers are aware that he'd once been there.

The concrete streets are painted green to match the palm trees' plastic sheen, the high rise a dazzling white with a roof of pink and what do you think the swimming pool color is? A lifeless tan to meet and match the sparkling desert sand.

Rows of beach chairs line a boardwalk of oak and pine, stripped from a northern forest glen by burly big beer-bellied men joking, smoking cigarettes, tossing butts into a brush of leaf and twig, not knowing that one glowing ash could set the forest ablaze for days and days with loss of life and ancient trees and nature's masteries.

And what about tourists strolling by, shorts and shirts of every hue, bulging breasts out in full view, rumps and clumps of fat fueled by overeating that triggers heart attacks and strokes and death of folks addicted to beer and Cokes.

All this and more created by man on this distant shore that was once a heaven sent monument to the good life on earth which, for what it's worth,is now only a fading memory.