[Issue 2022.60]

‘Return to the Cities’, Marie Vibbert

Illustration © 2022 Eric Asaris

At the end of the end,
We return to the cities,
Leading our cows.
Ancestor-made canyons
Make us crumbs
Awaiting a monstrous hand.
Like the clustering sumac we avoid
Sudden sections of bareness, of
Clean
Stone.
Is this ours?
We children of poisoners?
We dare not look
Where gnarled roots desecrate trashcans
Like dice clenched in wooden knuckles;
The subtle ripple of asphalt telling—
No, we grind our neck bones
Until our will buckles;
We can’t see enough to feed this new awe—
To stand next to that which is
Grand.
We revel in doorways for giants.
Catching the glances of our cattle
Unwillingly brought, patiently ignoring
The broken,
Browsing the succulent.
It seems a vulgar joke;
It’s as likely their ancestors built this.

© 2022 Marie Vibbert

[Issue 2022.60]

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