Poem: Stop-loss

Stop-loss


By Jack Brummet


We can't slow back down
And run twice as fast
To keep up
While electric plantations hum 24/7
In Bayonne, Shanghai, Richmond, Tacoma,
Manteca, South San Francisco, Pittsburgh,
Flint, Bombay, Long Beach, and Cleveland.
Expressways and boulevards
Skein an incipient skull orchard.
We are caught in flagrante delicto, with our pants down
And hands wedged in the cookie jar.
No one dares to finger or be fingered
As mother earth struggles
To free herself
From the shackles.
She turns off the rain
And takes back her Dodos and Whales,
Snail Darters and Spotted Owls,
Pygmy Hippotami and Flightless Cormorant,
Vancouver Island Marmot and Gavial,
Great Auk and Wild Ass,
Tapir Kagu and Manatee,
Carolina Parakeet and Dire Wolf,
Coelacanth and Blackfooted Ferret,
Snow Leopard and Przewalski's Horse,
Glaciers, rain forests, and monkey flower,
Bigleaf Scurfpea and Spiny Rice,
Interrupted Brome and Greensword.
The infidels have battle fatigue
And sing the song we know so well:
I don't believe in earth. I just believe in me.
      ---o0o---