Freeways And Wildlife Sanctuaries

You can hear the seagulls and the breakers slightly off to one side

While the semis jake brake and the cars whiz by the Amtrac trains on the other

They are protecting several tiny endangered plant species found only here -

In the slope up to the freeway exit behind another new Super Target

The elephant seals have begun to re-appear after being mass-slaughtered a century ago

Priuses tailgate Cadillac SUVs in unending lines through smog-enhanced sunsets

There is a green recycling bin by each one of the many public garbage cans

But, Yosemite valley is a twisty, overcrowded maze of dusty, half-lost traffic

The bread is good and there are organic fruits and vegetables readily available

Stores and houses crowd the farmland down to the tiny coastal butterfly reserves

Progressive is not an insulting word and alternative thinking abounds

The radio dial sports more Christianity than Country but less than Spanish FA-MA

They are protecting the beach nesting areas of the endangered snowy sand plover

Thirty-five million people already live here and more arrive every single day

There may still be good, un-crowded surf breaks just a short ways up the central coast

They pipe stolen water 500 miles to try and quench LA’s vast unending thirst

Chances are a freeway will take you to that remotest wilderness area

It’s all handicapped accessible and the poor earn money collecting all the recyclable litter

The gasoline pumps are fitted with vapor-trapping devices to fight the air pollution

Retirees carefully fuel their 70’ motor homes which tow monstrous SUVs

Bears roaming through the campsites are exciting nighttime entertainment

Having a flat out on an urban freeway might just cost you your life

They got commuter trains and carpool lanes and a host of ecological tax incentives

Quite often you don’t have an average speed, stalled somewhere out on The 5

The economy is hi-tech, service-oriented and among the world’s largest

Swarms of the brown people’s decrepit vehicles surround a myriad of small plots

The climate is mild along the coast, tending towards forgiving and inviting

There really is no end to the traffic but sometimes it’s a little lighter

Volunteer ‘docentes’ help to raise public awareness of the treasures to be preserved

It’s really hard to tell if they are moving ahead any faster than they fall behind

Cute little signs urge us not to dump because these drains all flow into our bay

Still, Tijuana, but 10 miles down, pours all its raw sewage into the ocean every day

These people buy more hybrid cars than any place else on earth

Their mammoth shining RVs consume power like apartments in slow motion

Every owner counts on the high six figures and above from the investment that is their home

The lucky urban poor raise children at campgrounds, fairly near to where they were born

They are protecting the fuzzy otters in the lush green kelp beds just offshore

Their organic spinach infected with migrant E. Coli sometimes finds its way into our markets

They'll Ignore You

They’ll annoy you without conscious effort and then tell you it’s none of your business

They’ll step on your face with a condescending smirk while clawing their way to the top

They’ll throw shit on the ground when no one is around and then just drive away

They’ll make gasoline-powered noise to blot out the good silence that makes them feel uneasy

They’ll throw up cheap crap on good land, make quick bucks and then leave town for good

They’ll call you when you’ve had an accident and then drive up in another new leased BMW

They’ll pimp real estate to gullible strangers like a mother bird feeds her tiny chick

They’ll ignore the homeless as they drive by every day behind their tinted windows

They’ll act righteous beneath their fascist, literalist, fairytale personal saviors

They’ll spout gibberish and call for soundbite political debates with real scientists

They’ll carry their canned, evaporated culture far from home and never see a thing

They’ll piss you off with their thoughtless waste without ever even knowing it

They’ll shame you to the civilized world with all their ignorant, macho, cowboy posturing

They’ll spend thousands to go hunting but demand that all forests return a profit

They’ll blithely support resource extraction ignoring any and all of its long term costs

They’ll call birth control a sin but use the excess ignorant as their contract wage slaves

They’ll never walk anywhere outside except to shiny vehicles parked closely nearby

They’ll mouth the nonsense of televangelists and conservative think tank analysts

They’ll work diligently on their pathetic golf games on grass that’s a toxic green

They’ll take pride in an ignorance knowingly pitched to them as tough, manly and rugged

They’ll no longer require your services once you have called them on their charade

They’ll spoil and ignore their lazy children but blame their failures on poor schools

They’ll unknowingly waste more every hour than most people earn in a month

They’ll demand ever more criminally wasteful military money and call it patriotism

They’ll support our troops with plastic bumper stickers on their sleek imported cars

They’ll subsidize terrorists with hard cash every time they fill-up at the gas pump

They’ll idle their 300 hp engines to serve as personal room air-conditioners

They’ll go out for expensive meals prepared and served by the angry working poor

They’ll refinance all of our futures and every one of us will have to pay

They’ll drive to the wilderness and run loud generators to watch action DVDs

They’ll ignore you and get up way too close then start making lots of noise

They’ll always know lots about the latest bright and shiny consumer fad

They’ll take tax-deductible ski vacations with their corporate mega-churches

They’ll get tough on crime but cheat on their taxes and shortchange their illegal workers

They’ll be concerned for their security and burn bright lights which also blot out all the stars

They’ll call for roads to eliminate congestion and immediately crowd them with tacky shit

They’ll bulldoze native plants then spend enormous sums maintaining toxic, artificial lawns

They’ll cut your throat behind your back using canned & coded corporate PC catchphrases

They’ll twist the words they put in your mouth and then put them to use against you

They’ll advertise for proactive self-starters who must also be good team players

They’ll produce elaborate fictional schedules as they socialize in their meetings

They’ll forget your name should they ever be unable to avoid meeting you face to face

They’ll espouse a laissez-faire evangelical Social Darwinism fueled only by their shortsighted greed

They’ll copyright your handmade ideas and cheaply manufacture them overseas

They’ll change lanes impatiently over and over, angrily saving even more wasted time

They’ll make sure everybody in the office thinks they work 12 hours every day

They’ll be full of friendly smalltalk and jovial smiles when their boss happens by

They’ll mouth free enterprise while lobbying for their own tariffs, subsidies and tax breaks

They’ll dismiss your ideas out of hand while endlessly quoting their gutless, invisible leaders

They’ll drive up your property taxes and then buy you out to make a quick profit

They’ll sell you on personal responsibility but control your very bowel movements

They’ll rule as corporate control freaks but then plead complete ignorance to company crimes

They’ll pay vapid fast-talking salesmen princely sums to pimp their useless products

They’ll get fat bonuses and stock options for their, unfortunately, immeasurable contributions

They’ll cut your benefits, eliminate your position and renege on your retirement

They’ll purchase influence and legislation to insure their own continued success

They’ll rend the very fabric of the living world and belittle you for not putting people first

They’ll always chant of costs in jobs and money over environmental and safety concerns

They’ll pass you at full noisy throttle then brake hard to turn off at the very next corner

They’ll eat the pus-like middle of their white bread and then toss the phony crust aside

They’ll speak of a love of peace while subsidizing their weapons-making donors with no-bid contracts

They’ll pray to a god who rationalizes all of their greedy and short-sighted actions

They’ll glowingly praise democracy while buying up votes and peddling their influence

They’ll ignore you completely until it might cost them a bit of power or just a little money

No Need To Protest Once They're Done

It’s hard for them to miss what they were too young to have ever seen

There’s just no sense in protecting anything that’s been gone so long already

Once they’ve disappeared there’s no need to fight over their extinction

Won’t have to try and save it if it was bulldozed so many years ago

There’s no point in boycotting that new Wal*Mart once the doors are open

Ain’t no way to stop this self-destructive process that we know simply and surely as progress

They aren’t going to get worked up over your old and faded pictures

It won’t matter anymore, anyway, when nobody else remembers

Once it’s been so hot for a hundred years no one alive will know any better

Just bulldoze those native artifacts and keep the work on schedule

Soon you won’t even be able to imagine how this all was before we came

They’ll say, ‘There’s no way you could have ever swam in this awful river’

No need now to preserve what’s been paved beneath this parking lot

Who cares that, over there, was where we used to keep our horses

Won’t make a bit of difference anyway, after a couple million years

No sense in arguing after all the trees are cut

Anyway, there’s still a few of them left, over at the zoo

Don’t have to file suit now since that marsh has been all drained

Forget about the bag limits, all the good fish are gone and the rest are full of poison

Why, they never even took the time to listen to all them songbirds, anyhow

No need for public hearings once it’s been graded flat and all paved over

It’s probably just always been really noisy around here, in any case

Can’t let the bears live too near our kids in their happy new backyards

It’s hard for them to try and restore what they neither created nor destroyed

Once we’ve broken ground there’s never any more objections

So, what actually was the point, in the way it was before

No way that this was ever just quiet rural farmland, in any case

When we are done, nobody will even listen to those squishy whiners

They won’t fight for things now gone, so far beyond their imaginations

Once we’re done extracting, there’s no profit whatsoever in restoration

Now that there’s this new road through here, why not add just a strip mall alongside?

After that, some cheap apartments over there won’t make any difference, anyhow

It’s gonna happen one way or another, so might as well get in on the money

They can fix up their little yards if they really need to try and make a difference

Now that it’s gone it’s just some NewAge fairytale to be dismissed with raucous, scornful laughter

No need to get offended now, it’s all been settled in accordance with our laws and tradition

They Win But We're Not Playing

They’ll cash in big, real soon now, on real estate, hot stocks or maybe even gold

We never gamble, don’t buy new cars and so very rarely even go out for dinner

They still spend more than they earn on things they casually ruin, then quickly discard

We saved enough to retire early but we continue buying their new castoffs at the thrift stores

Five days a week and fifty weeks a year they toil in nondescript obscurity

We’re making more than that on just the interest from our nerdy savings

Got to have that flash new sports sedan and the latest giant whatever screen TV

We live large and free driving old cars among them - And they do not even see us

Chained to credit cards and mortgages, their spoiled children act as a heavy ballast

It’s so nice to be debtless and not even have any rent to pay…except for health insurance

They march at precise and artificial angles laid out by simpering project managers

Finally cast aside for good, our days of narrow specialization are done at last

Heading up and moving out on all those weekends which are so quickly forgotten

We spend months wandering this land, often just trying hard simply to avoid their herds

Loading up on lattes, Big Gulps, and drive-thrus they spend freely and grow fat

We buy the good stuff raw and cook it up ourselves, while sipping an inexpensive tea

They get real work done on their cells even while languishing for hours in endless traffic jams

Our slow pace infuriates them on their busy ways to their latest very important tasks

Their children cannot read or write despite all their attentions and the latest in meds

We wonder every day at the shabbier world their parents are de-constructing for them

They get news between commercials and their opinions are spun from clever sound bites

We spit out media pellets like our dogs cough out the bitter pills we place into their food

They save a lot at Wal*Mart while imports rise in proportion to jobs disappearing

We find that which lasts, even in the modern world, still remains the best

They push each other’s buttons to get their readouts on phony litmus issues

We play acting like we really care about either side of their deliberately false choices

Living for today was always real exciting but what do they remember now?

The fast times they enjoy have passed us by at last and we are not sad to see them gone

They are happy being spoon-fed their fundamentalist, evangelical beliefs

We are free to contemplate the terrible emptiness that approaches so very fast

They love fireworks, making noise and the excitement of crowds of clones

We search for peaceful quiet places, trying to fit in without making a mess

They eagerly suckle on all the pious bullshit RE: ‘ThE greatest country on the planet’

Now we hide our passports in shame traveling to places they cannot find on maps

They strive so hard to make their unique mark within the confines of the herd

We regularly get the crap kicked out of us by them for being a little different

Their rights include free clean air, unlimited good water from their taps and cheap garbage removal

We see what people in upstream places pour back for the towns down below them to enjoy

In their constrained view it’s animals and trees versus people, jobs and our sacred way of life

We are cursed by the belief that we are destroying the very web of life that supports our society

Ancient, ignored and irrelevant history slides along, an ancient 10 to 15 years behind them

We consider some of our thoughts in light of the estimated age of the universe

Theirs is satisfaction in fertilized, poisoned, over-watered factory bluegrass

We look to experience climax forests with their food chains entirely intact

They want either money from the government or the right to kill any wolf they see

We want their welfare cattle to stop abusing our federal lands for next to nothing

They search for the cheapest factory foods, never mind its manner of production

We want to eat cleanly, morally and sustainably and will gladly pay a little more to do it

They never miss reality shows, packaged corporate ‘big games’ or special presentations

We found if you ignore them, such bees quickly stop buzzing between your ears

They idle their SUVs in air-conditioned comfort awaiting their fast food orders

We try to find the shade when it’s hot and stir up something cool to drink

Their patriotic acceptance of our dEfense costs us nearly a trillion, every year

We see no justification in spending more than all rest of the countries combined

They feel safe driving overpriced, inefficient dinosaurs designed to wear out quickly

We enjoy our tiny fuel-efficient cars, full of gizmos and very comfortable

Make theirs quick, hyper-sweetened, greasy-fat-laden and heavily caffeinated

We’ll have the more subtle, smaller, whole-grain, homemade portions, please

They pursue angry recreation in noisy, smoggy, devastating gas-powered toys

We hike, swim, ski, surf, kayak, board - And can still hear our surroundings

Theirs is a world of backbiting, political intrigues and private boardroom schemes

Our quiet search of self-discovery reveals the destruction spreading out about their footprints

Their god commands they conquer the land and treat its creatures in any way they deem fit

Our beliefs tend towards mutual survival within largely intact ecosystems

They feel safe behind locked doors within brightly-lit, gated and patrolled communities

We camp alone in empty places and draw peace from the starry stillness

Their god moves about in his mysterious and fundamentalist ways

Our god has no will or message and neither watches over nor awaits us

They leave a tattered, overpopulated world to their very special children

We blew off reproduction in protest of their vast and thoughtless destruction

They plaster their faces, get botoxed and send their poodles off to the spas

We push aside most of their designer castoffs pawing through the thrift stores

Their new 300 horsepower SUV gives them a sense of pride and security

Our aging Japanese economy cars simply make more sense to us

They flaunt their financed luxuries in hopes all the world will be impressed

We hide our wealth and travel like burnt-out gypsies on pilgrimages to real experiences

They look away when they meet us walking, say in the grocery store

We try to ignore them in their idling mortgaged cars, talking noisily on their phones

Their giant empty second homes are where their families might someday gather

Our persistence retains the access to the public lands they are trying to fence off

Their children fuel the market for garishly colored cereal shot through with sugar

Cheap hot dogs and pus-like white buns would go bad if it were only us buying

They have rolled more long term credit card debt into their houses than they are worth

We sold our place before their greedy speculative bubble began to pop

Their taste for excitement, color, noise and crowds keeps their senses full

Our search for quiet peace and tranquility always begins with avoiding them

They sternly lecture everyone that maintenance of the economy must come first

We just don’t see how this wasteful circus could play on for a thousand years

They control the human landscape and to them so-called progress is quite inevitable

We will be extinguished due to their actions, right along beside them

There’s No Hiding From Our Own Advances

You’ll have to breathe what’s in the air to live more than about ten short minutes

You can’t avoid the dirty things smeared about as you fall towards the ground

There’s no real ignoring the poverty enjoyed by most everybody here

You’ll always have to hear the un-muffled trucks pounding by in their clumsy and ignorant glee

The jets will still be floating so far and wide above you, all so safe and clean

You must drink the water sometime, from a source that you will just have to trust

Unbidden solicitations will assault you, from all directions, at every moment

The food that you must eat to sustain you may poison you all at once, or over time

There’s no hiding from their bulldozers, earthmovers or giant noisy dump trucks

You can’t avoid the angry crowds from the swarming plague of overpopulation

This next upcoming pandemic will be an important milestone in your short time

You’ll experience the warmest years in recorded history, for the rest of your life

There will be a chance to contemplate the vehicles standing idle for lack of fuel

You can watch videos of empty factories for which they once destroyed good farmland

You will observe with amazement how quickly the skein of civilization can unravel

There’s no avoiding the filthy mud and yet there’s no way to clean your shoes

We can all learn to go to sleep dirty once again and wake up scratching and hungry

There’s no hiding from the all-pervasive propaganda of the competing cults of personality

You must endure the pounding of giant helicopter blades, far too close for comfort

His self-appointed representatives on here earth will drive His Will deep into your brain

Happiness will come much easier and center upon food, clothing and shelter

There’s no hiding from the toxic fugitive dust in any of our so-called great cities

You will be martyred in a jihad you do not understand for a promised place in some fuzzy heaven

Once the conglomerates have used you up, you will never work again

Watch as everything but military spending is pared back to next to nothing

Observe with incredulity the vast array of perverse crimes that make up the news

Don’t try to avoid every pothole or you’ll never get to where you must be going

There’s no hiding all your symptoms from the many problems you did not create

Hel-lo-o

Hel-lo-o, stubbornly staying on message is mere propagandizing, not holding the line on socialism

Slash the foolish military budget right in half before it chokes us all to death

Realize that god does not provide you guilt-free disclaimers for your political decisions

Stop trying to muzzle scientific research using political debates, buzzwords and sound bites

Wake up - The facts are long in on global warming or climate change or whatever you want to call it

‘Property rights’ to small streams are an empty shibboleth for your faceless corporate investors

Stop ignoring the recycling hybrid drivers on energy efficiency and alternatives to smash and grab

‘Local Control’ simply empowers outside developers in their formulaic coast-to-coast rape and ruin

Freedom and democracy do not magically emerge overnight from foreign war, rubble and poverty

Look, gun rights, abortion and gay marriage are really not the most important issues that we face

Hel-lo-o, France is not even the enemy, you alternatively-gifted, brainwashed and illiterate pawns

Your fundamentalist, evangelical, literalist brand of heaven is but a comic fairytale to the godless

Evolution is not enemy to any non-dogmatic religion but adds to its deep and insoluble mysteries

Demagogic fundamentalism is way too simple, childlike and constraining for literate adults

For god’s sake at least clean the restrooms in the national parks

Yo, mover and shaker - that house of yours is not some go-go investment instrument

You will be cast aside by employers but still need to work to survive, in your golden years

Credit cards are not the way to maintain a phony lifestyle despite your negative savings rate

Hel-lo-o, we are not building a better world through our mindless mass consumption

Our military spending is infinitely more wasteful than our ‘failed’ social programs

Further breaks for the rich have never trickled down and floated the poor up out of poverty

Your precise information control is not conducive to the open and free society you brag we enjoy

Health insurance and early learning programs are cheaper than prisons and emergency rooms

‘Gaming’ is one more vice pimped by corporations for the government, just like alcohol and tobacco

Your overpaid, unregulated military contractors are running amok, armed and on steroids

Holy wars over resources have failed many times before we ‘invented’ them once again

Hel-lo-o, how is simply mortgaging future generations better than taxing and spending?

You fucking idiots voted for Bush & Obama twice so don’t even look for someone to blame

BigAg’s ethanol is no energy alternative but actually a well-tuned subsidy-lobbying effort

You have led us from the world’s summit into a dark and deepening box canyon

The pitiful, foolish, lazy, ignorant and undeserving hang on your every sponsored word

You cannot discredit honest science with a merest smirking grin & the imperially dismissive wave

I’d call for all your impeachment sirs, but I am but another squishy, cut-and-runner

No, we are not better off or more secure than before this dark time began

America the fat and ignorant cowboy bully is such a shameful, humiliating image

Hel-lo-o, your god did not appoint you sheriff and moral compass to the world

It’s pretty hard to cut and run as the setting cement of cultural decline reaches up to our knees

Contrary to your baseless rhetoric, clean air and pure water do not compete against jobs and money

Leave the Middle East to sort it out for themselves in the stinking desert, without our petro-dollars

Evolution does not rise up against your sacred Bible as yet another Creation Myth to be smitten

GM, Ford and Chrysler are as out of touch as yourselves and the aging senate

Hel-lo-o, mommy doesn’t need a faux armored troop carrier to take the kids to school

Look, you can’t afford two lattes and a $12 lunch every day, you clueless chump

Increasing population to pay our debts will ruin our lifestyle as well as the environment

Producing food like lightbulbs poisons the earth and destroys the sanctity of our family meals

You will never find that account from which to draw that time you are always striving to save

Don’t leave us ignorant and poor to make China rich, innovative and ecologically-devastated

Make them depend on our water technologies, our energy innovations and our food stuffs

You have no right or reason to mouth ‘God Bless America’ after every speech you did not write

This wasn’t, isn’t and won’t be God’s Country and we surely are no chosen & exceptionist people

Jesus cannot and would not guide you with your foolish military decision-making

There are way, way too many black men in your fabulously overpriced and outsourced prisons

Clean air, pure water and intact ecosystems actually are also valuable and finite economic resources

Hel-lo-o, a sustainable economy does not threaten your precious Traditional Family Values©

Just stop with the blatantly-hypocritical, faith-based, saber-rattling and moralizing, already

Look, this is just an undeveloping country on a small but lucky planet,

circling an average yellow star, in a so-so spiral galaxy, in one of many possible universes

Travels In The Mystery

Set out in misty pre-dawn darkness and took the first wrong that was possible

By the time the sun had smudged the night horizon my way back was lost for good

Quickly found my awkwardly-packed and hazy goals a useless burden to be cast off

Now I cruised along powered by the illusions scattered out from my youthful imagination

The sun was not too hot and I set a pace that did not strain me

All along the way kind strangers righted me and saw me off again

Nights always found me blotting out any accidental recollections

The countryside kept on changing slowly and so did I, drifting on

Good women bade me stay with them to build enduring dreams

Old dogs roamed with me taking scraps beside my fires

Aging men told me these riddles and to this day they grow even harder

Watched the sun rise many times but did not really see what it lit

Heard voices speaking softly in tongues that were strange to me

The seasons changed along with the scenery as I passed by to somewhere else

It took me quite a while not to fear all those things I did not understand

Often I woke up excited to explore another place I had never been before

Paused here and there for half a season where the living was warm and easy

Picking grapes and apples, harvesting wheat and berries occupied me in their time

With no goal and nowhere to return to, I could not in honesty say that I was ever lost

My potential satisfaction increased with every hardship I endured

Deeply drifted snow blanketed me until late Spring during several years

At last began to notice that my growth rings began to narrow into simple habits

Even as my eyes grew dimmer, I used my experience to fill in the finer details

My opinions lay quietly inside that they might not damage my chances on the road

Stayed with men who built warming fires from old debris in rusty barrels

Slept in sturdy cardboard shelters and recycled newspapers into blankets

Walked trails I could not see as darkness overtook me in ever-deepening woods

Sought safety in the churches but they did not keep them warm

There were many times there was no path ahead and no room to turn around

Then again all directions seemed open, sharing equal beauty and great promise

Sometimes I wept with loneliness and at others with good cheer

Doors sometimes closed as I approached but many showed me warmth and light

Pursued my own tack without a map but many had been that way before

Laziness and greed were not parts of my own peculiar temptations

Found real beauty in the desert but only in the dark of night

Winters did not bother me in the lands where skies stayed mostly clear

Happiness stopped overcoming me so often but at last ceased to let me down so very hard

The disaffected no longer enchanted me but still the ordinary held no magnetism

Slept in castoff clothes with dirt in many layers between my toes

Paid too much for petty luxuries that could not satisfy my imaginary needs

Kept on walking and taking odd jobs right along with the many other immigrants

Met a couple pilgrims and caught snatches of their inner conversations

Learned to know the weather by the marching of the clouds

Watched the tides changing with the waxing and the waning of the moon

The gypsies would not speak to me cause I had nothing for them to steal

Wondered why the wild geese had decided to settle down within the cities

Did not have any snapshot history to prove that I was ever there

Got all the disgusting skin diseases but free the free clinics saw me through

Helped build orphanages and new wells, dirt roads and far-off one room schools

Talked to myself just enough to know that I could actually still hear

Watched the indentured flood the highways seeking a weekend recreation

Heard the children laugh and call me names and was tempted into wonder

Learned to read the water and followed the courses of rivers like good books

Was alone so long that I felt uncomfortable when I found myself in crowds

Grew skilled at untangling random knots but could not bind things together properly

Found that my contempt slowly turned into confusion when nothing could be changed

Studied the evolution of the litter that crept out in every direction on the trails

Felt my faculties decaying even as the world around me moved ever faster

Built a warm and quiet retreat deep inside my thickly-walled and slow-moving head

Began to see my own old footprints being made by other’s shoes

Set out for nowhere, so I could never say that I was ever really lost

Stayed mostly where the rain was so welcome you would not look for shelter

Could not fathom how many people now clung everywhere upon dear mother earth

Saw the headlines in passing, as if they emerged from my unconscious

Jumped into cold lakes to clean off my sweat and rinse out my mind

Rolled in the snow and shook like a dog and cackled into the emptiness

Carefully peed on the phony green lawns that I crept past in the night

Helped them hold me up as an example for their children to avoid

Listened carefully to the silvery tongues of their clever politicians

Compared the fantasies of those caught up in some religion or another

Watched as progress unfolded and put an end to many quiet places

Observed as dying cities spread and grew larger, even in their decay

Was poked and laughed at in a cage I built of my own dreams and fantasies

Got washed and fed by patient women who had seen it all before

Did not make a fortune and was abandoned by the merchants for lack of credit cards

Grew thin and wiry on scraps during long marches but did not complain

Set out with bright eyes and happy smile and only slowly grew gnarled and twisted

Found myself at last with a good set of well-tempered memories
Never stayed long enough anywhere to really leave it all behind

Never got all bent up about running out of time for the happily ever after

Read much more than I talked and wrote way more often than I shopped

Croaked and peeped out my little song on this one tiny green pond

Filled up with tears at the beauty of the frightfully large and empty universe

Spit a bit of ochre around my hand as it lay upon the canyon wall

Never had enough to toss it all aside and make some kind of a new start

Listened equally to the recovering alkies as to the suave opinion makers

Trudged on through one more war or man-made disaster after another

Wrung my hands in anguish through the wailing for the dead and the dying

Carried off the victims and looked for patterns in the smoke of their funeral pyres

Knew I had no ultimate goal but never doubted my sense of direction

Felt secure on lonely beaches where the waves crashed in endless trains

Abided in the valleys not yet buzzing with man’s abrasive touch

Happened upon a woman who spread peace tending plants and flowers

Wondered at the men who sought security by constantly preparing for another war

Saw them savor artificial victories and taste the bitterness of imaginary defeats

Set out with confused expectations and collected unrelated realizations

Grew older but was not deemed wiser and let it go at that

Considered my words so carefully that they mostly condensed into silence

Stepped aside as others rushed by me, heading off in different directions

Kept on walking, trying still to see it all for myself

Used up more than I helped build, reaped so much more than I had sown

Slowly regressed back through the infantile once again towards the void

Reached out back through time to those that I once had known

Looked forward in the night to the peace of pre-dawn hours

Set out again as someone different, but set out just the same

Did not lack for sustenance, comfort or human understanding

Loved the good earth that sustained me and wondered at its mysteries

Saw the moon through daylight clouds as if from somewhere else and far away

At last started simply observing as that growing mystery settled on in around me

Darkness In Their Light

They bought items made and shipped from far away and they saved really big

Their jobs disappeared and others worked as slaves unable to afford what they made

Her bathrooms were always so clean and shiny and safe

Her antiseptic cleansers biologically selected the strongest pathogens for survival

He awoke in the Saturday darkness and drove far to the wilderness

At the trailhead to the lofty summit were already parked more than 50 cars

His lush green and manicured lawn was the envy of his good neighbors

It leached precious water loaded with eutrophifying fertilizer and toxic pesticides

They pointed, clicked and texted their way far out into the vast reaches of cyberspace

They rejected organized learning and spelling and syntax and grammar also eluded them

The country saved money eliminating preventative social and health programs

They ignored that required new jails and emergency services proved even more expensive

The president emerged, firm in his beliefs, after talks with his personal savior

The imams were unbending in their narrow interpretations of their infallible Koran

They had real jobs cutting down trees those foolish tourists spent money just to see

When they were done there were no longer any jobs because no more stupid tourists came

They counted on an increasing population to pay the debts of their wondrous times

Subsequent generations lived in ignorant poverty on a shattered and overcrowded planet

He enjoyed his pricey morning latte and needed to get out for lunch in his new car

At 50 his services were no longer required and he realized he had saved nothing at all

They clamored for freedom and local control of their natural resources

Outside developers bought them out for pennies and built empty, gated second homes

They spent trillions building the most powerful military the world had ever known

Their greatest threat was a scraggly band in sandals that eluded them for years

They realized they could no longer stay the course

But they knew well that they must never cut and run

Executive perqs and compensation increased some sixteenfold

Meanwhile, real worker spending power declined by nearly 12%

They flocked to their beloved seashore to raise families and retire in the sand

They drained the wetlands, eroded the beaches and polluted the ocean with their wastes

She was uninjured after missing the stop sign due to her kids and her cellphone

But that compact economy car was destroyed - Thank god giant SUVs are so very safe

He could quote movie stars and commercials as well as a myriad of sports trivia

As he lay dying he finally realized his own thoughts were few and unconsidered

The dam provided inexpensive electricity and eliminated the threat of floods

The rich silt no longer fertilized the valley farms and fishing livelihoods were lost

The industry advisors spoke with one voice regarding the country’s energy policy

Their society was left supporting terrorists with every tank of gas they wasted

She took great care of herself, watched her diet and did not drink

She died thin and pretty and having not recognized anyone for more than twenty years

Ancient traditions had sustained their Asian society for several millennia

In a rush to modernization they lost their culture and destroyed their environment

Concentrating all week on those two short days off from the endless work to come

But every weekend was lost just the same in a dusty, noisy, swirling blur

Always fighting deadlines and following tight and pressured schedules

They finished way late without any fanfare because, in reality, no one really cared

Sensing the creator everywhere from all his works so close at hand

Swallowing dusty scripture without masticating, like little black pills of literal truth

Springing from the void into mother’s warmth and safety

Ascending into paradise or maybe just decaying into dust once again