Behold! The Land!
Thirty-five species
strangled by sprawl.
Their fluffy, stuffed corpses
are tucked in children’s beds.
Behold! The Streets!
Traffic snarling,
logs jammed in a flume,
screeching and flashing
angry red lights.
Behold! The Mar’t!
Fat men and fat women
drag fat children
through fluorescent caverns-
unwitting witness
to the annihilation
of a million Chinese childhoods.
Behold! The Republic!
Journalists and politicians,
chained in the yard,
yap at the feet of
white marble monuments
stacked on swamps and Indian bones.
Behold! The Orphans!
Hard-mouthed teenagers,
tangled and lanky,
mumble raw prayers.
Their slick fingers
stroke cocked
triggers.
Behold! The Ancient!
Wide eyes,
wrinkled and sedated,
stare from sunless rooms
dreaming
of touch
of remembrance
of phone calls
of Florida.
Behold! The Screen!
Moguls fit minds
with prosthetic emotions.
Waxy and familiar,
they numb hollow sockets.
Behold! Behold! America!
The end is not near!
