030120b

Prairie Seas


Only their heads show above ground;
tumbling from the bow wave:
boulders, bricks, trees and fences;
only the bedrock dense enough to bear them up.
It's deep here on the delta,
so how tall must they be
to break the surface?
Many more are felt as ground shake,
but never seen;

they'll miss the ruins of the city, this time,
though a head, yesterday,
bobbed right through my aunt's two-story house:
the place just blew apart,
naught left but bricks and firewood.
Why are they on the move?
This ain't no seasonal thing,
and, though they aren't remotely human,
 if I am interpreting their expressions
with any degree of accuracy,
we oughta be moving too.

102217b

Exodus

A world like any other

makes a place for us,

plastic bridge shimmer

stitches together

a crimson landscape,

eroding mounds

under a bloody sun,

red-veined leaves,

carmine fruit, scarlet vines,

flowers like ripe cherries.

Humanity takes its lumps

like any evacuees,

learns to eat what’s here

041317

To Luna, Quickly
 

we're all flying to the moon
the swifts arrive first, obv
but even the slugs go
piggy-backing on the bats
and between the toes of owls
the water there is frozen
and the air is thin
but after the 6-minute war
it's clear they can't stay on Earth

seeds arrive tucked into cheek pouches
of rodents and rabbits on the backs of eagles
who will need something to hunt, after all
no one knows how the elephants did it
but there they are

the forests of the moon are underground
naturally
air is trapped in the caverns
rich in oxygen
light is reflected from crystal formations
deep into the moon
the pale leaves remember the sun

there are no humans
no H. pigstyense
God forbid!




Inspired by a poem by Jane Yolen