earth note 422

u.s. route 20, euclid avenue

the only tangible

philosophy
is one that you can hold
in your palms
rub the earth
behind your fingernails
pickup food and pass it along
like daniel
to the folks who
need it most
and then go rest
in lakeview cemetery
i'm sorry i missed
his transition

the planet is filled

with imposters
war machines
built on so many
twisted fears
the leaves are not
camouflage
but life itself
to shade out the bitterness
the rain will come
and wash us all
thorough
if we're so lucky

those are not clouds
but haze
hanging in the gallows
there are no clever
metaphors
when walking alone
every highway
will leave you
thirsty
for another explanation
so you revert
to the things you think
you know

a couple sparrows

are dumpster diving
into the rain gutters
passing their food around
like a potluck commune
sometimes
it's just
that
simple

--- e b bortz

oil boom to dustbowl to fracking rigs & tornadoes

read the history of oklahoma
or let your eyes really open
on its horizon
and it looks like everyone
     except regular folks
have made all the decisions

factory hog farms & feeder lots

chemical fertilizers
& monsanto terminator seeds
pick up what's left
and bury the prairie
and foothills
in shit
& blue green algae

hear the aboriginal drums

     speak
     now listen
          let the buffalo roam

--- e b bortz

earth note 421

ancient pueblo cliff dwellers
stone and mud mortar
reaching high above fertile valleys
cultivating and harvesting
corn beans squash
their secrets held sacred
fire pits and water basins
pottery a practical art
from ten thousand brown hands
living through millennia
pulling in the sun
through time and space

before the europeans plundered

& the rivers dried up

--- e b bortz

 

digital desperados waiting for the library to open

 durango, colorado

coming down

from the san juan mountains
tent campsite with giant pines
clean pit toilets
and good drinking water
but we've been so spoiled
in this digital world
of smart & unsmart phones
cameras
book readers
that coax our imaginations
even beyond the dirt roads
& smoky coal fired steam engines
winding thru the wilderness
to silverton

rain off & on a few times

with & without lightning
thunder rolling last night
shaking everything
'cept the dreams
lodged below the eyelids
the yearning for
a new day coming
in the spirit
of back country hikers
loading down along
the animas river
boulders rushing
marching with their packs
the shadows standing everyone tall
like the pines
melting into the woods
incognito

--- e b bortz

earth note 420

rico colorado
was about to come alive
or go to sleep
when we saw a pizza & bar sign
out near the road
touching our hunger nerves
impulsively
braking & parking
at the side of the two-lane
in the company of a dozen
broken down buildings
a cook sitting out in front
of one of them
that we passed up for the pizza

the bar was old wood

embedded for decades
in beer & shot glasses
and when we ordered
the largest pizza with mushrooms
i can't say the thought
of dying from mushroom poisoning
didn't cross my mind
but of course that's all
long over with
glad to report
death missed us this time

meanwhile

the mountains peek down
on the valleys
in shadowy reverence
we pay homage
each late afternoon
as the aspens become
wind chimes
or prayer wheels

--- e b bortz