A ravenous population
simultaneously dislocating
their own jaws
with hopes of swallowing
larger prey than they
have ever
swallowed before

When an entire populous
is simultaneously
stretching their guts
with hopes of holding
more and more
contents
any last notion
of sustainability
is buried beneath
millions of
misconceptions
about human needs

Nature is convinced
it's time for a sixth
extinction event
before man has the chance
to gnaw her to the bone

Eat or be eaten

Lay down and let her
devour you

Flood and flame
and hurricanes
Clearing her slate again

Rain and plagues
and earthquakes
Going to great pains
to recreate The Great Dying
The Permian / Triassic event

The damage is done
We consumed it all
We cave to the sun
and the seasons of salt

When the meat
has nothing left to eat
and self reflects
existentially
church and state
scour the skies
for ways to explain
exactly why
they now fill their guts
on the flesh of their
constituents

Now the most
valuable mineral
is sodium chloride

Should we salt ourselves?

A new food chain defined
by class and race
and breeding stock
by those who best
can spin stories of
disappointed gods

History has shown
man will gnaw the bones
of friends
in the end

The damage is done
We consumed it all
We cave to the sun
and the seasons of salt

The rain may fall
in the years to come
and wash the bodies
of who succumbed
to our greatest weakness
a need for sustenance

We'll go to ground
Hide from the light
and desperate neighbors
eager to bite

Clouds pregnant
with gray nourishment
disembowel themselves
far too late
for us to grow any grains

Something will grow
in our place
Once the salt
is washed away
the rain will reclaim

We caved to the sun
and the seasons of salt

The rain may fall

Scrap away the earth
Claim debris as your own
Assign a monetary worth
Sell back the streams
Sell back the stones that
had been under their feet
all along

Historic treaties so
easily defeated by way
of imminent domain

Profit has no sense
of right or wrong

They know of your snake
that burrows
just beneath their lake
Afraid its steel skin can crack
turning their water black
with its venom, and lack
of regulation

Water and oil, salt and soil
Commandeer and distribute
Native lands diminish returns
Trample those who dare dispute
Slowing your charge
with their songs

The chants get louder
The banners grow taller
A shanty camp becomes a nation

Shareholders and bulldozers
declare what is and isn't sacred

When word comes down the pipe
from the biggest suit of all
to pillage their water rights
as the snow falls

Disregard their thirst

Water and oil, salt and soil
Commandeer and distribute
Native lands diminish returns
Trample those who dare dispute
Defending the sacred
with their songs

It's only business
It's only business you will say

When home, health, and history
are shoveled away

Gain wealth at any cost
Letting no rock
stand in your way

I stood helplessly by
as a mountain of ice
slowly crawled over my
stick-built life
Those years, much of me died

Sifted through debris
and load-bearing lies
that formed the scars
several canyons wide

Those years, much of me died
and was left behind
for anyone to find
there in the ice

I found more than gravel
in these wounds

A glacial pace
erodes the weight
of prior mistakes
Grinding fate into
gold
exposed
shorn from
newborn bluffs

When all I knew
had been carved through
a twisted topography
births perspectives anew

Duality and despair
usually found in pairs

Geologic pain
evokes the same
memories

I found more than gravel
in these wounds

Those years, much of me died
and was left behind
for anyone to find
there in the ice

Glaciation followed by
glimmering truths

When more ice comes aground
and streams trail behind
frozen, but still alive

Dare I be so lucky to find
gold exposed behind them all?

Gold in every tragedy
that makes landfall

From the moment
we knew
that you were here
this family of three
became four

We imagined
who you'd be
Your mother
cheered at the screen
when she saw
your heartbeat
ever so faintly

She hugged the nurse

If only we could have known
you just a little while longer
we would have
sang to you
We would have
named you
something
beautiful
meaningful
powerful

I'll sit at your side
far above the tidal lines
and patiently wait while
you learn to count
each growing wave

Warming small hands in mine
We watch the land divide
Witness monuments
to man's ignorance
slip beneath the brine

This high tide in front of us
will never stop
Climbing street by street
and brick by block

I'll try my best to explain
how we are the mites
We are the mange
to be cleansed and
washed away

Crops and culture
Civility and song
Golden nation-state
battered by the waves
Swallowed and gone

I warned them
not to doubt
that we all could
still drown
during
this drought

When there's no
high ground left
we will take to the waves
I know them well
Warm currents lead the way
Planned a lifetime
for this day

I'll sit at your side
and watch
shoals swim underneath
leading us
to reefs time forgot

Cruelty of competition
The catastrophe of capitalism

Egos and spite
None of it calcifies
Offering no advice
to those who follow

They will have to surmise

It's hard to fossilize
that which has no spine
All the while the rest of us
composed of bone
can leave no record in stone
if we're ground to dust

In a world the color of rust
whatever follows us
will have to theorize
all the different ways
we may have died

How disappointed
they'll be when
unearthing the truth

They will dig through
our plastic cocoons

They will
have to theorize
how we died