A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF AMERICA II

a single seagull soars aloft,

blackened sky bleak sanctuary,

over oil slicks, detergents’ foam

sea tides shoreward drifting carry,

past piston-throbbing drills and derricks

pumping crude from ocean’s floor,

flocked fleets of floating fishing ships,

seal hunters scavenging stained shore,

through clouds of carbon mon-, di-oxides,

smoke, jet streams, sulfurous pollutions,

engines’ emissions, factory filth,

combinate acid rain solutions,

above

beaches black with tar and sludge,

rusting metals, bottles, litter,

sparsely patched by brittle brush,

berries

by pesticides made bitter,

by boardwalks’

brightly glaring lights,

flashing neon signs, billboards,

strung telephones’ tenuous wires,

cables, electric lines, light cords,

rows of casinos, miles of motels,

parking lots, r

a

m

p

s, shops, swimming pools,

lines of cars,

vans,

motorcycles

in exhaust-hid, traffic light duels

’’‘

near airports, train, bus terminals,

at the edge of urban gloom,

warehouses’, factories’ shells blackened

with fallout, film from chimneys’ fume,

pigeons sit perched on chain link fences,

rodents and roaches roam about,

where of any more diverse life,

neighborhoods forced to fend without

’’‘

into cities’

metro-scapes,

all brick, concrete, glass, plastic, steel,

muffled sounds of social congestion:

honking horns, screaming, sirens’ peal,

e n v e l o p e d

in a noxious haze,

solvents, pollutants, stale air

produced by crowding, idling engines,

making life other than man

rare

’’‘

but life is there in gilded cage,

tropic fish tank, at leashes’—— end,

behind high walls and iron b|a|r|s,

in zoos, on man

forced to depend

’’‘

outweighing wildlife in the flesh,

pelts on display walk city streets,

lynx, minks, fox, coons, chinchilla, leathers

many a vain wardrobe completes

’’‘

beyond the city, garbage dumps,

sewage treatment plants, landfills,

process piled refuse, wash waste products,

hide toxic stocks beneath dirt hills,

massive tile pipes empty sinks, toilets

into rivers, ponds and lakes,

hazardous wastes, pollutants transport

on once clear currents, w a v e s, and wakes,

deforming fishes, turtles, frogs,

snakes, insects, birds and vegetation,

feeding the kelp, algae, pond scum,

with warmth from wastes’ irradiation

’’‘

to suburbs’ streets nature retreats,

manicured lawns mark soil’s return,

sprayed, spayed, hoed, mowed grass again grOWS

without weeds, wildflowers or fern,

tightly trimmed hedges, picket fences

d – i – v – i – d – e properties, line sidewalks,

stray birds, bugs, rodents,

cats and dogs,

all besides man, neighborhood stalks,

latticework grids of lots and highways,

sprawling houses, paved driveways

built to suit varied income levels,

laid out like some medieval m a

z e

’’‘

pushed back by tractors, tillers, mowers,

backhoes, frontloaders, loud machines,

most wildlife leaves man’s residence

for more secure, pastoral scenes

’’‘

but in the quiet countryside

‘sport’ and game hunting men pursue,

pheasant, duck, quail, turkey and geese,

moose, elk, deer (and their offspring too)

dog and cock fights in sheds and barns

baptize with blood for bettors’ gain,

in steel-jawed

small predators

and furbearers

wither in pain,

skunks, raccoons, coyotes, bobcats,

martens, minks, muskrats, otters, foxes,

fishers, badgers, beavers, br’er rabbits

are shipped to furriers in boxes

’’‘

their forest homes cut down, lands cleared,

hillsides stripped bare in search of coal,

for rows of produce, groves of fruit

sprayed by airplanes for ‘pest’ control,

watered with sprinklers, staved by stakes,

from fertilizers falsely fed

for increased yield, rapid ripeness

to human tastes, appetites bred,

just like the sheep, pigs, cows and chickens

in pen, stanchion, pasture and barn

destined for distant slaughterhouses

all marking time down on the farm

’’‘

out here as well, sit laboratories,

secluded from the public’s view,

testing, torturing animals

in the name of research (‘life’ too),

inflicting cancer, death, diseases,

am/pu/ta/ting organs, limbs

dissecting cats, dogs, mice and monkeys

at sponsors’ and scientists’ whims

’’‘

from countryside to the seashore

the trail of blood continues on,

nature’s reshaped and reconstructed,

its face human ‘grace’ put upon,

estuaries, tributaries,

small creeks and streams spill toxic wastes,

sifting salts, sludge and synthetics

over

soils chemical encased

’’‘

down riverbeds dammed dry by men

to feed lawns, fields, electric ‘needs’,

abandoned autos sit in silt

(rivers to oceans topsoil bleeds),

on to the docks where tankers wait,

cargo and cruise ships load and empty,

where fishermen mend lobster traps,

spent suns set on a blood red sea,

steamers’ diesels’ stacks spew soot,

garbage scows outbound trash tugs carry,

above, a single seagull soars aloft,

the sky no sanctuary

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Tags:

city, dark, death, environment, industry, nature, pollution, seabird, seagull, sludge, smog, smoke and travel