Amy's "Them" is a short, urgent poem about the damage humans are doing to the natural world. It begins with a sense of long stretches of time, years of wandering through moss and trees, and then reveals that this history is "slowly dying" because of us. The poem then narrows the blame in a pointed way: "us," "you," "me," and finally "them." By the end, nobody gets to stand outside the problem.
The poem sets old freedom against modern intrusion. Birds once ruled the sky, but now "metallic vultures," which seem to mean aircraft, have taken over. Orang-utans and manatees, once free in their forests and seas, are mentioned as examples of what is being lost.
The speaker sounds sorrowful at first, then increasingly impatient. The short final stanza, "No more excuses / Or ignorance," feels like a direct challenge to the reader. The mood is grieving but determined, ending on a call to action.