Michigan
Sun sets on lonely highway roads:
The blood of an industrial era flows
In ebbing waves of black and gray,
Construction signs and potholes.
Beauty chokes on fumes of smoke--
Her radiance loses shining hope,
Shattered rays:
Pastel colors of a stunning blaze, fading
On to baby blue and beige;
Heaven’s skies in their sinful demise,
Brilliance lost beyond skulking haze.
I could lie on Oval beach forever,
Hands in that gritty squeaking sand
Wrap me in blankets of rolling dunes
As if my brothers hadn’t tortured them.
Shaving those shining waving mountains
Footpaths, erosion, We the Poison, strip
Our sacred soil of its integrity,
Our slave, the Earth, of her luscious lips.
Her face is sad, but not lost to me,
As over the truth I will not glaze
She’ll be lost; withering rapidly
Soon, if we don't make a change, shall
Only scraps of untouched skin remain.
Staring on to setting sun, can't forget--
And only could we try in vain:
Pastel colors of a stunning blaze, fading
On to baby blue and beige;
Heaven’s skies in their sinful demise,
Brilliance lost beyond skulking haze.
Her night is the worst, indigo hues take in
A moon breathing stars; her silent dominion
Calms me as I close my eyes,
Lying in the cooling grass
Of a land betrayed and so far gone.
That I should only turn my back,
These mythic sights haunt a void of black.
Night sky torn back by ceaseless corruption!
The City attacks Moon with perfect disruption,
Defenders dancing in her celestial glare
In mesmerizing patterns I can almost forget,
Try I may, but the truth is scathing:
Pastel colors of a stunning blaze, fading
On to baby blue and beige;
Heaven’s skies in their sinful demise,
Brilliance lost beyond skulking haze.
The retreating glory of a world we stole
And constant reminders of Her scars
Taunt the last of those concerned, like
The reflection of clouds dancing on cars.
Cellophane wrapping those beating hearts
Notifications, calls, dates-- that suffocate
A natural world slipping away like a tie,
Blue collar, white fence, end of the day;
The working man who lives to die,
An empty life of wife and kids, sighs--
Color lost behind his eyes.