The Carbon Budget
– for Amos
The sky has a nervous stomach.
This spring of shattered estates
and salad bowls tossed on hillsides
where mercy chefs bring porkish
mac and cheese and new friends
with chainsaws rid the pool
of sweet gum branches. The wreckage
of joists and complaint of wires, poles
all frowsy and dinged. Give me
your hand in these hot smudge days
and let’s whisper the best
available myth of ourselves
to the ringing grind of bulldozers
who herald the coming currents,
the barren calm of our old earth.
20 thoughts on "The Carbon Budget"
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Loved it!
Great opening line and word choices throughout! Frowsy poles and hot smudge days. Scary weather!
best available myth…too good as always
Foreboding lines, Liz.
i like the undercurrent of anxiety (maybe from the crammed in form) reminds me of a ray bradbury story..
Gems throughout- especially love salad bowls tossed on hillsides, complaint of wires.
“let’s whisper the best
available myth of ourselves
to the ringing grind of bulldozers”
Love all the sounds and images, Liz! Powerful.
Powerful images of wreckage and fear for the future, yet the love and hope at the end are beautiful. The contrast in the poems ending is breathtaking:
“let’s whisper the best
available myth of ourselves
to the ringing grind of bulldozers”
Praises for the barren calm, and may it return swiftly! You perfectly snapshotted the moments of loss, community, hot smudge days.
Yeah, that line “let’s whisper the best/
available myth of ourselves ” makes me want to be a writer someday. Beautiful.
I have no words. Snaps all around.
I loved this, especially that end: “the coming currents,/the barren calm of our old earth.”
Yes! Thank you, Liz.
The planet is sick and we are living
with its devastating vomit.
Still, too many won’t listen.
You captured the entire message in
the first line, but it’s all a great gem
of a poem; everyone, including deniers,
ought to read it.
I loved “frowsy poles”! Your description always amazes me! Great writing!
I especially love the “porkish mac and cheese” and “frowsy poles,” “the ringing grind of bulldozers who herald” and “whisper the best available myth of ourselves.”
Hard to say something that hasn’t already been said. Great lines, great imagery, and a solid start to this June!
The sky nervous the old earth’s barren calm about sums it up.
Makes me want to sabotage a construction site snaps
“whisper the best
available myth of ourselves”
Oh these words create such a story in themselves. Ah. ❤️
I really liked this!