garbage juice
Jesse Black
seangadoury
norm
Rob Nagy
darren
shitisbadnews
Mathew Reynolds
Tom Nagy
frenchypink
kaleidoscopeflux
Emma Smith
Travis C
The vastness of it all sneaks up on you.
Dimensionless space, stretched out, thoroughly kneaded into existence,
and lain down onto an otherwise absent landscape.
It’s immediately clear that this is a place where life is not something that’s granted,
But rather, something that must be earned.
*
The winds have no problem tearing your flesh clean off the bone. They will indulge,
Exposing your porous architecture, and allowing to billow the vapours held within.
The heavy smog will then secure your head,
and make you watch your own stowed-away corruption
Interact with airborne distillates of oil-rig city shame.
*
The misplaced smell of rich earth is sure to want to mingle,
An impractical joke, this land—the troubled sister of a terrain more productive,
Raised by hordes of farmers wielding impressive tools, terrible habits,
And indecent techniques which they forced upon her unwilling body, time and time again,
Tilling her group-ravaged soil into traumatized dirt, barely held together by unbounded roads.
*
These roads are lined by small, compacted rodents— casually, yet almost reliably.
Given the sheer size of the machinery responsible for this, and modern developments in hydraulics,
It’s unthinkable that the drivers felt any sort of impact when going over these creatures,
Yet every sunset, for a split second—though they convince themselves otherwise—
They’re visited by thoughts of burrows and unexplainable cravings for specific grasses.
*
They say the last glimpse of the sunset is always a false one,
That the sun has already set and as the atmosphere refracts its rays,
The spectacle we’ve come to love is a big, magnificent lie.
If that’s the case, then this place that’s almost entirely horizon,
Is surely home to the biggest, most magnificent lies of them all.
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Filed under: verse
The formatting is a bit off, but there’s not a tonne I can do about it. The poem’s a little wider than the box for it :P
Magnificent indeed! <3
Loved it! Especially the last verse, the magnificent lie, simply wonderful.
good arts dude !
i also like the last stanza best – not to say i don’t like it all
makes you think about stuff
:)
I agree. This is very well written. As depressing as it is, it is also a statement to the truth. When you see so much undisturbed openness and empty space, even the slightest glimpse of man’s influence/damage is shocking. This magnificent lie with its compacted rodents… makes me wonder why we ever drove through it. Oh Canada. You didn’t mention anything about the constant bird fights though!
Thanks for the comments, everyone, I really appreciate it :)
The bird fights were something I considered writing about, but decided not to.
A couple of people have been saying that the last paragraph was their favourite. I can see why that would be the case, in terms of meaning. I also think that in terms of language, it’s the most straight-forward, which I think comes as a relief after the rest of the poem, which is something I was going for.
The simple ending is a reflection of a trend towards a type of simplicity in my life, and plays on the realization that I tend to complicate things much more than necessary sometimes. In more recent times, I have been experiencing the relief of that simplicity. Don’t get me wrong, however, I’m not saying that ignorance is bliss or anything of that sort. As always, I will continue to put too much thought into too many things, but sometimes the only way that certain things can make sense is when seen at face value.