I curse the sun
waves of invisible flames
unfiltered
strike
wise clouds long since
escaped
adorning
mountain tops
playing tag to amuse
sandpipers discovering
shadows to be harmless
but whimsey doesn't
perch on tumbleweeds
though they certainly beckon
"Would it be so out of line
to add a splash of colour ...
anywhere?"
my words are swallowed
by a mirage
drowned in the roar
of a waterfall
crashing into ...
"Why are you grey"
I ask the squirrel
the one with the ragged tail
"I'm a grey squirrel. Are you without sense?"
"Why do you destroy my home?"
The squirrel inquires.
admonished by a grey squirrel
in the middle of
an endless expanse of sand
anything alive
buries itself here
an escape as I see it
the unknown darkness
found by plunging into the
burning sand
preferred
to the unbroken sameness
in fairness
Joshua trees stand tall
but look to be broken
even in their healthiest incarnation
they serve as a landscape
a still life of motionlessness
broken by the thrill
of a grey squirrel's journey
I admonish the haughty grey squirrel ...
"I care and I'm aware
I'm a hugger not a mugger
a tree lover
not driller or a killer
I don't kill Bambi
or little lambies
I'm no gas guzzler
or pit bull muzzler
and here's a little puzzler
what's so grand about the sand
and searing heat
and burning feet
this is your home
it's where you roam
adorned in grey
HEY!
would a drop of purple hurt?
or scoop of brownish dirt?"
It was then the squirrel seemed to have enough
and he admonished me quite sternly thus:
"You're just rotten sportin' cotton
from a harmless sheep
forgotten as it stands there naked
burning in the noonday sun
sound like fun to you?
dig those leather shoes
and belt that holds your britches
damn you're leavin' me in stitches
but it's tragic when I think
of slaughtered life
just for your cloven hooves, my friend
you love trees and all they bear
but your house is made of wood
could you be a bigger hypocrite?
oh yes, you could
cables, pipes, and wires traverse the land
of course, to you it's only sand
but believe me it's not doing
any good for those who live there
in harm's way
but HEY
it keeps you warm and cozy
as you drive your economic
ergo-friendly, environmentally loving
all terrain vehicular intruder 'cross the plains
you fill it full of fuel
drilled from the very Earth you claim you love
then you spew it in the air
without a care
but OHHHHH those leather seats ...
your house, it blocks our view
and you think only about you
as you stomp along
and never stop to see
what your foot prints crush beneath them
so, you understand
your admonitions and complaints
about my colour
make me laugh
when it's you who suck the life
from every corner of this place
I call my home ..."
I walked home then in silence
Mother Nature
is a grey squirrel
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised
that I wouldn't know that ...
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