Promises/Deforestation
by Odin Roark

Propagation
once but little white lies
told as this
found as that

Small child
Smaller adult

Crossroads vanish
becoming eight-lane driverless highways
blindly determinate
like ants with carnage
hastening down darkened tunnels of delusion
obsessing queenly reward

Mutant seedlings develop
over
around
past us

Little by little
survival is vanquished
taken prisoner
stored deep
awaiting kerosene baptism
into "future-preserve" they call it

Flames lick portals
safety promised
futility administered by axe-clashing consumer giants
birthing wasteland

Dead Zones

Mama's promises
once forests of rain
reduced to locust-rage
filling bellies sans hunger
clothing princely born hubris
fueling narcissism turned panic

We clamor into
blogs
tweets
faceless-books
escape
just out of reach

Denying broken promises
fuels voracious carbon foot prints

Yet
we sit center stage
watching
designing
planning
drowning
once glaciers
once rain forests
once flowering deserts

A planet's next century dawns
the next hundred years of shorthand sermons
promising joy in near-death survival
while loin-clothed primitives
once championing Nature
look on
awaiting the next tree to fall