Mourning the loss
Of a world we've never known
Once there lived dragons
Where there are none now
Dwarf and remnant fauna
In a state of extreme depletion
As its size and abundance decline
So too do our expectations

Our memories have been wiped
As clean as the land
These barren treeless wastelands
Perceived as wilderness
The aftermath of disaster
Perceived as nature
Where once there was forest
Only sheep, grouse and heather

Shifting baseline syndrome
Merrie England doesn't exist
We're just mourning the loss of our childhoods
An idyll and a myth
Nothing left untainted
By humanity's destructive hand
A landscape distorted
No green and pleasant land

Born into a land
Of open, festering wounds
That we cannot see
Because it's all we know
Kept open and infected
In the name of conservation
Complex living system
Beaten into submission

The natural balance upset
Keystone species gone
Invasive species thrive
Monoculture and ecocide
The plants devoid of insects
A sky devoid of birds
A land that has been stripped
Of diversity and life

Shifting baseline syndrome
Merrie England doesn't exist
We're just mourning the loss of our childhoods
An idyll and a myth
Nothing left untainted
By humanity's destructive hand
A landscape distorted
No green and pleasant land