13

How can it be

that the ground itself

does not sicken?

The tar is locked

in the sand for a reason:

what’s held in the earth

is not always meant

to spring forth to be burnt

not in this balance

of gasses we call air

Knowing is not

tested by the factual

but we go there

unreasonable in our

desires to find out

what transformations

fall from our social metabolism

taking up the material surround

to form our economies

and manufacture consent

But the understanding remains

a footprint in the sand

in which we will no clots

of oil to pool—no blackened

ducks wash up on this

imaginary shore so real

in its diverse life forms

a quick orchestral up-topia

where nothing dies for mechanism

and we wonder at living growths of spring