Sunday, December 3, 2023

poem

 Concrete Kingdom

In the concrete kingdom foisted

on dust and soil by driven men 

nothing ever lasts.


Driveways crack. Sidewalks buckle.

Vast parking lots fractured

by weeds finding atomic gaps.


It’s all runway strips and endless tarmacs

where everyone you love is taking off

just as you’re arriving.


It’s the benighted realm

paved over and pocked with holes

that are always getting patched.


But nothing lasts and everything crumbles

in a land of artificial hardness 

that’s never quite hard enough 


Would be more honest 

to build our world 

completely out of glass


We’d see everything smashed—

the matted flat grass,

dirt unfurled like ancient scrolls


Bearing answers to timeless questions

in secret runes and glyphs

that no one can translate.


We’d walk more gently.

Wouldn’t stomp our heels 

or lug around too much weight.


Tiptoe like nervous children

in the shadowed upstairs halls

when the parents would fight.


Take off our shoes.

Listen and watch.


We’d see the start of every crack. 


12/3/23

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