roxyforthewin

If you remember the first time you heard the word “Holocaust” and it was with your dad in the car on the way home from Hebrew school and you were ten years old, then maybe you would understand.

Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave
Sodden with the blood of the dead
And the rocket's red glare, and the bombs bursting in air
And the sound of rolling heads
America, America, God shed His grace on thee

What is a cemetary after Halloween?
When the pipe cleaner spiders are gone.
What is it then, if not an empty field,
The ground a swollen and pockmarked front lawn?

What is a cemetary on a gray December day?

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
People do what they can and must
The sky is filled with acid rain
Beneath? Dying men, shouting in pain.
The battle's over, midnight has gone
The screams still echo, going on and on

There is a certain wiry. beauty
In the crumbling infrastructure of the great state of Connecticut
The land between the rivers  that flow towards a brackish sea
And the way that even the clams seem to be reaching, striving

Climate Change Contest: Bronze

When will the last owl fly
Calling out for why and who?
When will the last wolf howl
Up at a heavy silver moon?
When will the very last salmon
Swim upstream to spawn?