Best Lossgreen Poems
They tore up the landscape
And scarred it with craters,
They tore up the landscape
And turned it all black,
Like some kind of hell
Had raised up to hate us,
The trees are all gone
And the grass won’t grow back.
They chewed up the green belt
With heavy machinery,
They chewed up the green belt
And clawed it to shreds,
As though the four horsemen
Had ripped through the scenery,
Waged war on the earth
And then left it for dead.
What’s left to be proud of
From pillage and raping?
What’s left to be proud of
From greed that defiles?
A smouldering landfill
Sucked dry and misshapen,
And nothing but coal dust
For a good ten square miles...
...inspired by the performance piece
'What's He Building In There?' by Tom Waits
A green glow dribbles 'neath his door,
and clamours of construction mutter,
bellow and insinuate, his broken voice
belies a whole man, straining with a stutter.
He comes and goes in dead of night,
I mark his shuffling gait,
his wheezing terrifies and taunts me,
nervous as I am to peek, behold this stranger's face.
The sounds persist for seven weeks,
relentless, with a purpose,
still I'm reluctant to confront
this man, anxious, desirous.
Then all at once the banging stops,
the green glow disappears,
I'm left to wonder what he built
'midst stammering and tears.
Overwhelmed with curiosity I wait for his return,
his latchkey kills my modesty, I stand before him now;
elderly, his shoulders bent, palms pressed as if to pray,
a penitent, upon his knees, head lowered in a bow.
For in the stark and silent room an altar is revealed,
intricate and fine beyond compare,
with flowers and still photograghs, a child is honoured there,
I took his arm and knelt with him in prayer.
The line stretched down the hallway now,
those offering respect,
the passing of a little girl
brought many to reflect.