Poem: City Visit

 

City Visit

 

such taxidermy!

generous once of vigorous buffalo.

lissome once

of waist-high grass.

 

and yet now

the softest prairie flower tarred.  

roams of horses cold in stone.

schools of fish lost to glimmers

trickled onto a scale of coins.

 

the hardened, broadened trails

gutted of horn, hoof and heart.

lifeless of osprey.

eagle squeegeed for a sheen of windows.

 

and the rumbles of rubber and metal,

humungous to pollute, distort, and amplify

the snatched hum of bees.

 

gone.  all of it.

and yet prostituted still,

mashed into replicas and logos.

money the new blood. 

factories the fertile fields,

slicing exploited, caged flesh  

for mouths that pity no animal.

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11/10 ... more changes... hoping to find coherence

11/9   ... lots of changes to original