This goes out to you
because you are all there is
and now
is all we have—so smile
(you’re being recorded).
Or grin—nervously if it comforts you—
because I’ve begun to doubt
whether progress, as they say,
is a communal lamb hock
roasting golden
on the sunbeams of goodwill.
(Truthfully,
when was the last time you thought
about Iraqis? Hiroshima? Diesel engines?
Amazonian Earth lungs?).
P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S
Of course, with the R&R allotted
this calendar year
we can’t vacation to the horizon,
Polaroid the Radiant Source,
nor nibble from the holy grill.
Next year maybe, perhaps.
(Yellowstone is closer anyway
& gas is expensive).
Should my doubt win over your grin
would you chit chat awhile?
No, I don’t much care for politics/religion.
I want to talk trees.
Have you seen them moonlit enchanted
near a fast flowing river?
Books now seem a crime.
LOCATION: Misahuali, Ecuador
