Poems X

(There has been some confusion about some of my poems, so to clarify: most of my poems are simply jokes and, like everything in this Fiction section, should not be taken seriously.)

Last year I vowed to write-off writing poems because of a weird experience I had reading some at a public venue.  Due to printer problems and lack of preparation, my reading attempt crashed and burned in an embarrassing travesty after which I promised myself that I would never write another stupid poem again.   However, I did write one while in Belize last month that I dedicate to the wonderful people and animals of that country.  The Belize poem is followed by a few more that I found in the files.

Mayan girls with cacao eyes
White sand beaches and coconut trees
Rivers and jungles teeming with life
These are the things that you’ll find in Belize

Cities of stone buried by time
Hammocks swaying in the breeze
Death begets life and life is fine
When you’re swaying on hammocks in Belize

Beneath the moon and the stars lie sacred seas
An aquatic universe of coral galaxies
The plankton are stars on which whale sharks feed
As they ferry their souls through worlds of reef

Howler monkey howl in mahogany trees
In turquoise channels swim manatees
Like the turtles and dolphins they are truly free
To live their beautiful lives in simplicity

As humanity descends into World War Three
And we destroy the planet to extents unseen
I wonder if this is the last century
That people will live in Belize

If the human species were to go extinct
Yet life for all others were to proceed
Animals would flourish in anarchy
And empty hammocks would sway in Belize

I'm afraid we will find out soon
That this whole human species is doomed
Due to the resources we take
From this planet we've raped
We'll all have to move to the moon

Here in the city
Life is quite shitty
Between the concrete, the traffic, and cars

They’ve cut down the trees
Polluted the seas
And drowned out the moon and the stars

I look to escape
Beyond the walls of this maze
But I keep getting trapped in the bars

Smell the shit on the streets
The burnt gasoline
The cigarette smoke and hot tar 

External construction
Internal destruction
The growth of this city leaves scars

In our minds and on Earth
To machines we give birth
Like robots with high-tech stretch marks

We consume endlessly
Are addicted to screens
And tear the natural world apart 

We take more than we need
And still are not pleased
Becuase we don't know who we are

So when we lie down to die
We remain hungry inside
For the nature of which we are starved

Yeah, here in the city
Life is quite shitty
But at least it’s not Livermore.