Building On The Achievements Of Others

The more we build
the more we miss
of what was there
before it was built on.

To get us to forget this
building firms that put up houses
name the estates that they put up
after the previous forest, glade
or other feature that fed nature.

Or as John Prescott, the politician
who was recent master of the malaprop,
even more than George W Bush, once put it

The Green Belt is a Labour achievement
 — and we mean to build on it.

and in the UK we have been building ever since,
to the point of turning land that was green belt,
reserved for trees and wildlife, into flood planes
on which home owners can't get insurance....