Monday, January 30, 2006

Eden's Hero

for s.a.

Your feet sink deep into the gunk
coating Ma Earth, trapping you;
you, who would save the world for
another Walt Whitman, or a poppy
spreading its seed across untrampled
meadows, not K-Mart's new parking lot
or tomorrow's Trump Plaza.

Kent State was only a preview,
Charles Manson, a mini-holocaust.
Blood soon will be shed over gas masks
and bottles of clean water.
Our rivers will run red.

Rachel Carson moans in her grave,
but dumpyards keep filling
with last year's TVs
rusty cars
Teflon pans
AAA batteries
Madonna's bras
AOL disks
and Pampers
while icebergs melt
and hurricanes race through
coalescent seas.

A woman ducks into an alley;
struggles to reach her cardboard home
before night drowns the tired sun
and stars start their sad trek across
paths already vanishing beneath them.


(this poem was inspired after reading some of s.a. griffin's powerful poems about making things right with the world again..or wishing that we could.)

5 comments:

mouse said...

This poem digs deep into the entrails of humanity. Very absorbing! Very haunting! Do you think, if we had it all to do over again, would we do it any differently?

Pris said...

I just don't know, mouse. As our population grows, so does our trash and abuse.

Pris said...

Thanks, Michael...wish there were an easy solution!

Geoff Sanderson said...

Another good poem Pris - I just hope someone rescues you for the nation, before the accumulated gunk comes up to your chin. But please, save Madonna's bra for me - worth a small fortune at auction :-)

Pris said...

Madonna's bra will be saved for you, G. I was sure you'd want the AOL disks!:-)