hopped into the landfills at night and pulled the trash up over top
of me
camped inside the
giant truck stops beside a hundred smoking diesels
made my coffee from
the orange waters still flowing from abandoned factories
paused to hear the
call of the ATVs and the zen of broken castoff bottles clinking
vacationed in big city
ghettos lounging upon piles of rusting metal
rolled my own from the
butts I found building up at every street corner
swam in the great
rivers right where our mighty cities drained their poisons
lay dozing beneath the
corn stalks as the chemicals were sprayed from above
stood in line behind
their tailpipes as they idled their 3 ton air-conditioners
ran down the mountain
valley with the last of the melting glaciers
built a lean-to by a
coal ash pit for a gray and grimy winter
lent a hand to a young
man who did not care if anyone lived or died
leached silently with
the fertilizer from their yards into the tired lakes
read a patchwork
fast-food litter diary walking in the ditch below the freeway
frolicked in the
tainted creek just below the abandoned mine
bought more than I
could ever use of things I simply did not need and then threw them
away
picnicked in the shade
of a dumpster alongside a convenience store
hiked among endless
suburbs as they metastasized through the fertile meadows
took vacation pictures
of my kids on an overpass with a view of the inner city
bathed in the warm and
healing waters of the power plant outflow
climbed the highest
billboards and watched the traffic roar by below
toured an ignored
superfund cleanup site and packed out all our trash
stretched my
imagination by envisioning the empty waters full of salmon
took my children to
pet the doomed steers down at the giant corporate feedlot
disguised as
empathetic social workers, we took a guided tour of the Projects
sitting by my tent at
night I saw mystical shapes in the emissions from the refinery
booked a cruise on a
refuse barge out beyond the continental shelf
knew the proximity of
civilization by the amount of garbage on the trail
looked out from a
rugged coastline to where whales once were sighted
overnighted at a noisy
rest stop and listened to nature sounds on my iPod
saw pictures of long
gone animals inside the climate-controlled visitors center
sat beside a barrel
fire and marveled at the fearlessness of those big rats
spent quality time up
at the cottage watching our DVDs indoors
paddled quietly across
the holding pond as another blood red sunset went down
took in the passion
play on the killing floor at the poultry processing plant
grasped for the
miracle of the canyon above the roar of the helicopter
read a bit of Walt
Whitman in the tranquility behind the superstore
breathed deeply of the
smell of progress down at the plastics factory
wandered alongside the
busy highway lost in an amiable reflection
played my flute at
sunset atop the eight lane tollbooth backed up for miles
cooked a simple meal
in the shelter of a quietly idling semi
bowed my head outside
the mall and gave thanks upon my safe arrival
stayed at a quaint B&B
just beside a jammed and dusty logging road
toured a large humane
society and got to know 300 unwanted puppies
enjoyed the
hospitality of the friendly owners of a family Meth lab compound
donated all our cash
to the large young black men outside the liquor store
caught some rays along
the naked crest of the mountain top removal mine
went down the drain in
one town and came out the faucets in the next
hung with the
particulates in the air on those cold and cloudless winter days
spent an hour hauling
Jerry cans of water then collapsed in our rented hut
passed the morning
hunting treasures with the little people of the landfill
took an extreme
refugee adventure trek across the border and thru the desert
ate the fishes that we
caught despite the warnings of the authorities
marveled at the
killing fields of the Khmer Rouge from within the tour bus
searched for
tomorrow’s leaders among the human offal of India’s cities
was ritually purified
by bathing in the putrid waters of their sacred river
relaxed and enjoyed
ourselves while losing thousands in the gaming parlor
foraged with the goats
until we had made way for the approaching desert
laughed and smoked
with the man who had left only AIDS to his abandoned wife
emerged with the
hungry malarial mosquitoes from an old tire on the ground
marveled as they drove
the Bushmen from their desert homes in Botswana
shook the dried
chimpanzee hand that they offered me at their bush market
modified pickup trucks
and drew my strength from their vastly increased noise
repeated the infinite
rosary of mowing, watering, poisoning and fertilizing my yard
disappeared quietly
with the songbirds after declining with the amphibians
fell asleep forever
lying drunk on bad vodka in a frozen Siberian alley
smiled in a fantasy
aphrodisiac satisfaction consuming the tigers and bears of Amur
flowed with the
arsenic up from the drinking wells way off in Bangladesh
drew hatred and
intolerance from loving each of those many One True Gods
grew stronger with
tuberculosis microbes thanks to those unfinished prescriptions
filtered quickly
through the landfills to become a toxic part of the food chain
learned to ignore
things I could not control and to take comfort in TV talking heads
found it easier and
much more fun to hate than to try and understand
elevated people, jobs
and money far above the one earth that supported all of us
after being outsourced
took up Meth awaiting the good new jobs being created for us
helped all the world’s
workers become unable to afford the things they produced
wasted $trillions
right along with all the other on the business, science and politics
of war
dipped in the quiet
cesspool to escape the biting flies and the merciless sun
knew I’d never grew
hard of hearing, short of breath and nearsighted, unlike the rest
waited patiently and
unprotected for the next deadly pandemic to appear
danced with the dying
and then helped to bury those who perished all alone
witnessed the miracle
of the very poorest who still possessed arms and ammunition
dirtied the bare toes
of their veiled, ignorant and pregnant mothers
scratched the phantom
leg itch of the child who had played with a landmine
abandoned my reason
for religion but not my dependence on advanced technology
paddled in the
plastic-lined untreated waste reservoirs of a million sentient
factory swine
always saved a lot of
time but never did actually find the occasion to spend any of it
filled the lungs of
the urban child along with the noxious diesel fumes wafting in her
window
denied her potential,
then gave her STDs and had her arrested for prostitution
demanded blessing from
our God and eschewed any apologies or regrets for our ordained
actions
shone with the
security lights as they blocked out the once-revered stars and the
moon
was buried in the
fresh concrete leading up to yet another convenience store
rose with the
greenhouse gases after my incomplete combustion
dashed to the dump
through the snow with a carload of our wrinkled Christmas packaging
grew as strong as the
unquestioned faith that drove me ever onward
found it much easier
to compound our mistakes than to admit errors and re-calibrate
lay poisonous and
radiating for a million years with the radioactive power plant
leftovers
found my way into an
orca’s soft tissue along with fire retardants, PCBs and plastics
went insane with the
zoo chimps after they learned they had no other homes
drowned with the polar
bears seeking long-melted ice floes from which to hunt
disappeared along with
the frugality of a bygone, quaint and irrelevant generation
was skimmed with the
fat bonus of a CEO who pimped his stock like some ghetto master
kept recreating on my
ATV despite the long drought, record heat and the constant wind
determined to rain
death upon the little girls walking together towards their heretical
school
exposed my collected
toxins to the next generation still cradled in the womb
was slashed as well
with the funding we saved on child welfare, education and Medicaid
slaved with foreign
women making things cheaper all the time for Wal*Mart
crusted over with the
dusty blood on the distant body part of a suicidal martyr
lay very quietly
beside the starving infant passing away in dirty rags
booked an adventure
weekend in an old van with 18 economic illegales
walked farther every
day through spiny weeds to find trees to cut for our firewood
spread wildly with the
invasive plants and crowded out the native species
got thrown away
dismissively along with all the other applications from those over
age 45
trickled quietly into
the lakes and rivers from a million tiny point sources
built up with the
poisoned sediments at the base of a giant Chinese dam
softened the harsh
daylight with the sulfurous by-products of un-burned coal
hiked far down in an
abandoned open-pit iron mine with a sense of wonder
congealed into a tar
ball after the spill & then floated the ocean far and wide
I took my place in the
atmosphere with the other gases belched by the thawing permafrost
rose slowly with the
oceans as I dripped from the once-mighty icecaps
peered out with the
Forest People as the howling chainsaws came a bit closer every day
faded into those dusty
museum dioramas beside the Inuit, the San and the Laplanders
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