The Body Politic
Crumples in an interstate hotel
meeting room after declaring
that green infrastructure
is spray painted steel faking
it til it makes it.
Heads nodding,
several city officers declare
the site a scenic easement.
A solemn brown road sign is ordered,
because a rock fence would be over-budget.
Small area plans for tiny minds
with a fleeing deer mentality sprung
between the asphalt ribbons.
Munching on milkweed and dodging trucks
they codify 128k acres as rural greenspace
and think it means freedom.
Infill becomes our haunt.
We are mice in the superstructure,
ghosts in the shells of steel & cracked concrete,
spirits in the blackened window
of progress and commerce.
4 thoughts on "The Body Politic"
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Well, this is depressing, inventive, hilarious, and salient, and something that needed to be said. It’s too tragic to say, I adore this, but I’ve read it several times now. And with things like the Gateway Lofts growing cancerous out of the lanced boil rubble on Broadway…
Yes to this poem. “because a rock fence would be over-budget.” So much truth.
spirits in the blackened window
it’s all of us
the species
ditto to all of the above and “scenic easement”