earth note 16

elk county, pennsylvania

sugar maple, black cherry, yellow birch, yellow poplar
hemlock, beech, red oak, red pine
allegheny forest you live like us
bloody concrete corridor
up against superhighways and eighteen wheelers
suburban glut compulsive malls
chainsaws backhoes bulldozers
recklessness with blinders on
revenge seekers
speculators
hate mongers
abandoned cities awaiting rebirth
bring your desperate branches to the crossroads
we'll lock arms
no pasaran
they shall not pass

--- e b bortz

(published in Hellbender Journal, 1997)