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EIGHT POEMS ABOUT EARTH & PEOPLE

keith harmon snow


1.

How The Kudu Got It's Name

When the white man
arrived on the continent
he found that Hemingway
was already there.




2.

Swim fish! Swim!

Swim fish! Swim!
Run deer! Like wind through the tops of trees!
You wild-eyed mice, the traps! No cheese!
With tiger's roar of icicle whim --
vanquished they fall to their knees.




3.

Bulldozer

One day you get up
And you have just had
enough.

With the sun comes
the saw where once were the
birds.

In your ear, on your pillow,
like blueberries on your
cereal.

Of course, there is
absolutely nothing you can
do.

Earn a living for your
forty snowmobiles, three summer
homes.

And the next day there is that
saw, once again, in your
ear.

At your desk you hear
the bang, bang, bang, of guns all
day.

You go to the store
and you say, no lead
please.

Lead, cigarettes, women
guns--buy anything you
like.

Go home, bulldozer,
plow up wife, girl, watch the
game.

And still there are all those
creatures dying, people
suffering.

So maybe you understand how I
feel when I see those big yellow
machines.





4.

Road

We descend this hill, these
winding curves, the paint-striped
snake, the fire of earth and mud
beneath the tar.

The flattened path
the fractured rock
the trees forever gone
as the road curves on.

And the animal there
blood and bones
splattered by humanization
injustice and humiliation.

Becoming only a spot smeared
into the road
no measure of pain
washed away by the rain
and forgotten.






5.

If You Hear the Sirens

Evacuate.
In your shiny SUV
with your company calendar,
its procedures and rules
and corporate ethics
the CEO slogans
and pretty pictures
of wilderness.

Evacuate.
Take games for your children:
Monopoly? Nintendo?
Take shave cream and razor
shave the hair off your ass
maybe see the light
of annihilation.

Evacuate.
Pull out your head,
follow the little blue signs
and with your nuclear family
in your shiny SUV
run for your life
going nowhere.






6.

Boy From Chun'kung (Nepal)

Boy, what do you see? As you look
to the world at your feet?
What do you see? From this place
you call Chun'kung, before me?
What mountains stand in your way?
What tomorrows call your name?

Boy, I envy you.
Your wild heart, so far apart,
your dreams in ice and stone,
snow leopard's haunted home,
one with the wild wind,
here at sky's end.

Yes, I have come to Chun'kung.
Yes, I have changed your world.
Please come and change, mine.





7.

Hummingbirds Against Substance Abuse


Smash the hummingbird feeders,

The cheap plastic bottles with
cheap plastic nectar
the false energy and
imminent disease of hypocritical humans.

Smash the hummingbird feeders.

And to those silent wonders
The architects of the pollen
The pitter-pater hearts
say:

'Run for your lives!'
'Fly for your lives!'
'Liberate your flower world!'

Smash the hummingbird feeders.

And smile.





8.

Fusion of Kelly and Elvis C.


I don't like those other guys looking at your curves
I find myself distracted by abortion.

I don't like you walking 'round with physical jerks.
A friend of mine is getting one.

Everything they say and do is getting on my nerves.
I don't talk with her frequently, but now I think of her all the time.

Cause when they pull the shutters down and throw-up in the dark'
I'm disturbed by her abortion.

They'll find that all the dogs outside bite much less than they bark.
And I don't know why.

I call your bet a felon 'cause you are a pretty villain.
She would not be a mother.

And I think that I should tell 'em that you'd make a pretty kill'in.
If she had a baby she'd become someone else entirely.

Meanwhile up in heaven they are waiting at the gate '
She never questioned the decision and never will.

Say'in 'always knew you'd make it didn't think you'd come this late.'
She'll agonize over it, as she does with many things.

Now its much too dangerous to stop what you've begun.
But she'll never recognize that she had a choice.

When everyone in paradise carries a gun.
Why should I care? Do I really?

Here we are liv'in in paradise, liv'in in luxury, oh yeah'
It we are all so 'pro-choice' why is it always such a big secret?

The thrill is here, but it won't last long, you better have your fun before it moves along.
What is going on? Anyway, I've gotta go.

Here we are liv'in in paradise, land of luxury'
I wish I had some happy stuff in my head today.


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© keith is an INDEPENDENT freelance journalist and investigator entirely dependent on individual donations and voluntary contributions. He has lived under the poverty line for over a decade, and he has continues to work as a volunteer for three non-profit humanitarian organizations. Without your support, he cannot continue to do this important and insightful work.

Your support makes this work possible!



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