1. |
Consider the Source
05:58
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I don’t think about what I can’t see,
it don’t count if it ain’t staring at me.
Little choices I cannot recall,
get it quick or not at all.
Every bargain has a hidden cost:
what was saved? what was lost?
Forty color-ways and free returns:
Where’s it made? What’d they earn?
Is it enough to add to cart
with buyer’s remorse?
Well if you don’t know where to start,
consider the source.
What becomes of what I throw away?
Broken cord, takeout tray,
leaky battery and shattered screen,
spilling ink I can’t clean.
Is it too much to be undone,
too late to change course?
Before condemning anyone,
Consider the source.
I set the table for an easy meal,
I don’t mind what I can’t feel:
Tired turkey in a crowded cage,
he can’t peck, he can’t rage.
Little choices and the way they spread,
Who must starve so we’d be fed?
I don’t think about what I can’t see,
but now that bird won’t stop staring at me.
I tap my heart before I dine,
but quickly divorce
from all your agony down the line,
and all I endorse.
Is it enough to add to cart
with buyer’s remorse?
Well if you don’t know where to start,
consider the source.
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2. |
Pour
05:45
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Solvents and paint,
poured down the drain.
There were complaints,
only forty years late.
Peculiar taste
of acetates,
migraine headaches,
growing cellular rates.
What we pour in the soil,
whether poison or oil
will eventually spoil.
The solvents spilled
down Cedar Hill,
feeding a well
and a weeping willow.
That man next door
lived here before.
But he knew the score
when his tree hit the floor.
What we put in the ground,
whether planted or plowed,
will eventually be found,
it will come back around.
What we pour in the soil,
whether poison or oil,
will eventually spoil.
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3. |
||||
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Off the side of the road,
branches trimmed and grasses mowed,
there is a snake with his head disposed.
Toad hops out of the briar
and underneath my spinning tire,
there he remains emulsifier.
Accidental damage,
casually maimed.
Incidental carnage,
collateral pain.
Bird smacks into the glass,
shaking, heaving heavy gasps,
settling down, she heaves her last.
Fawn gets caught in my fence,
trying to clear but slams against,
with every leap a bloodied mess.
Accidental damage,
casually maimed.
Incidental carnage,
collateral pain.
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4. |
Blight
05:10
|
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|
Quickly, I need it!
Shipped in a day,
oceans away.
I’m willing to pay
to get the best that I can,
the best that I can get.
I’ve got to feed it!
High in demand,
short in supply.
I’m not a bad guy,
I do the best that I can,
the best that I can do.
Caterpillars hatching,
swinging on thread
with fanatical spread,
they need to be fed,
to get the most that they can,
the most that they can get.
Defoliating,
chawed up trees
with skeletal leaves,
a many-legged disease.
They do the best that they can
the best that they can do.
Sleeping and sated,
nesting on the bark,
evolving in the dark,
prepared to disembark.
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5. |
||||
|
O, keep your window closed today,
O, cover up your nose today,
O, do not stand so near today,
O, there’s something is in the air today.
O, there’s something in the air today,
O, best to take the stairs today,
O, be sure to charge your phone today,
O, maybe work from home today.
O, there’s something in the air today,
O, thank god I wasn’t there today.
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6. |
Deactivate
07:22
|
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While I was scrolling,
shocked and bored,
I came upon the news
of your departure
from this ailing place,
from which you chose
‘deactivate’,
While out my door
and down the street:
deflated bodies,
empty meat,
a running dog on trailing leash
was free to roam but not released
From gravity and malady
and sheer corporeality,
anatomy in disrepair
catastrophe in open-air.
They’re telling me:
“ascend the stair:
eternity in betaware.”
While you’re awaiting your result
allow me to present an ultimatum:
either save this place
or opt out and deactivate
before your body’s obsolete
abandon ship, reserve your seat.
But if you transfer incomplete,
do not refresh, do not delete
Your treasury of memory,
your tendency for reverie.
Diffuse your being everywhere:
a remedy beyond compare.
Be not afraid,
do not be scared
to swiftly cross that thoroughfare
O take my hand, I’ll take you there:
eternity in betaware.
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7. |
Calamity
03:30
|
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Who will look after what we leave behind?
Well-hidden waste,
out of sight, out of mind.
Mountains of metals and slime,
hard to find by design.
Rotting garden where crud and convenience combine.
Over calamity we climb,
sure we’ll get this right next time.
Who will look after what we leave behind?
Still-burning barrier of smoldering pine,
Cover-less creatures confined,
climbing vines, running blind,
seeking shelter and safety in sudden decline.
Over calamity we climb,
sure we’ll get this right next time.
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8. |
A Great Flood
03:24
|
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Of this I’m uncertain:
will we be forgiven
should there come a great flood
to drown out our decisions?
We were only children,
silly what we did then:
scooping up the tadpoles,
left them on the pavement.
Faultless in our innocence,
charming in our ignorance,
pissing in the reservoir,
didn’t know the difference.
Of this, I’m uncertain:
will we be forgiven
should there come a great flood
to drown out our decisions?
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9. |
They Lost All of Us
03:36
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