Author: © Don Ogden
Publisher/Ordering: Levellers Press
Publication Date: October 5, 2016
Type: Poetry and Prose
Social Media: Blog – Website
Bad Atmosphere
this is not what it was supposed to be
how many fields ago, clear blue and clouds
billowing and soft breeze, dancing leaves
us wondering if our own children, grand
children will be left with broken days
loss of ways what was such a gift to us:
birdsong moments and fragile wings so bright,
colors and scents molding memory then
something, a shadow, a careless movement
beyond the yard, in the distance, in the house
unnamed unease and a growing world of
bad ideas, bad atmosphere for all the best
reasons, for the children playing outside.
all the human population has more than doubled
since then, the others have dwindled and
the children’s time to play, scheduled, gone
the way of no one does that any more, and
they get in the car and drive off the edge
of the chart where everything is made away
where science meets the unknown and
the air is seemingly conditioned for your
comfort until the lights go out and the gas
runs out there on that hot asphalt hell and
the angry yells and the wars, the wars, and
the empty silence. try texting that. try liking
that. the links are numbered now. there are
only so many “resources” and that
away is right here today and the
atmosphere? the atmosphere is bad.
In The City of Homes
The City of Homes is a sea of tarps
blue as far as the eye can see
nothing much left above
ten feet, a hundred yard dash
through the heart
a trampled turnpike to the
next victims, eastward
striped and flattened trees
instant endless barrens beyond
the city of homes where
nothing’s for dinner, where
foreclosure takes a whole new meaning
where shattered glass soaked
beds provide no rest, where
damaged toys make no noise
sirens fill still air and flashing lights
consume the sleepless nights
here in the city of homes
a gyre once ground up sound
churning up the river and
everything else on its way
to a news item near you or
down south or in Missouri,
Japan, anywhere really and
more often than you’d think
the weatherman or woman would
care to mention that
science has established beyond
a reasonable doubt, reasonable
being the operative term, limits
being needed by the way, we
live reckless on the planet, in
this city of homes where a
flick of the switch no longer works
and the next special report
like yesterday’s headline is
just like tomorrow’s sad tale
in everyone’s city of homes.
