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Open Poetry #37
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WindWalker
Senior Member
since 2001-10-12
Posts 1218


0 posted 2006-04-02 01:41 AM


Tirelessly, endlessly,
day in, day out
they chug their way
up, then down
the course of the river
seeking payloads:

--huge booms of logs--
to haul into
the gaping maws of giant mills
never satisfied, never filled:

a ceaseless labour
to what end?

The men who labour on the tugs
--so strong and friendly--
so ready to give help when needed:

what are they thinking of
travelling thus
as Atlas burdened
forever it would seem
back and forth
back and forth?

I could guess their thoughts
but I would rather not
(so let me tell you what I think:)

these dead logs herded
down the mighty river
were a forest once
where countless things
did live
--happy and free since time began--

the things that live there
live no more
(whatever we may prefer to believe:
look at the sky!)
in giant booms
their coffins float
to hungry mills:

The men who fall the forest
–what can they do?
they watch the things die
and run away
from their homes

as they
hack, buck, choke,
pile, load, dump,
box, float, drag--
and obediently deliver
into gaping maws
of insatiable mills
demanding
ever more, ever more.

They are helpless now
for they believed
and for their due, received
the mark of the beast
by which, to live
one must destroy
to profit another:
a  heartless, spiritless
inhuman creature
whose veins twisted, bloated
run with black ink,
whose blood is the green
of envy and jealousy:
the World Trade Merchant
seeking profit at any cost:
servant of a Dark Lord
who aims to make of us all
slaves and destroyers.

Now I ask you this
if you care at all--
Is it too late
to find another way?
too late to repent, to change
to rescind
an ignorantly-made allegiance
to a power gone mad?
Can we return
to simple love-energy?
or
have we crossed
the very last boundary
the very last hope
by our own
insatiable lust?

© Copyright 2006 Sharran WindWalker - All Rights Reserved
StevenS
Senior Member
since 2005-09-21
Posts 945
L. A. (Lower Alabama)
1 posted 2006-04-02 08:28 AM


WindWalker, you hold mans sins up in a way they cannot be ignored. May God and the Earth bless your cry and may the wind carry it to the ears of all mankind! Repent indeed!
ThisDiamond
Member Rara Avis
since 2002-02-22
Posts 9353
Michigan, USA
2 posted 2006-04-02 09:51 AM


Change is a scary thing...it requires commitment and self discipline...
You astonish me with your powerful rendering...
I say Yes...they can be changed...this sacred earth can be saved...one mind at a time.
Hugs,
TD

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