the degradation of thirst
in the alley of progress

infrastructures crumble cry and all the trees are lying

i walk through your concrete garden
stunned by lack of growth and claustrophobia becomes
my escape

there is no air here but you keep breathing
wheezing teasing freezing oxygen into clink clank cubes
lining glasses of liquid liberation

what have you done with the flowers? even the weeds
are afraid to breech
your barrier of sophisticated cement

give me your heart and i’ll plant you a memory

give me your disease and i’ll grow you a cure

give me your hope and i’ll bury the bones you cannot hide

lie

down and watch comets race a sky you cannot see
blind yourself with light and reputation
sit in your city white-noise silence

i have your bird in a cage of freedom
every morning we sing you back into existence
though you’ll never find a single luck feather

as you rest your bare head on a synthetic pillow

of down

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month.
This post is part of NaPoWriMo.
Also joining in with PAD (poem a day) over at Writer’s Digest.

 

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Also linking in over at dVersePoets for OpenLinkNight,
join us!

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24 Responses to “the degradation of thirst
in the alley of progress”

  • claudia Says:

    having the bird in a cage of freedom… what a contradiction… and singing them back into existence is a wonderful image…some cities have developed in a terrible way and i wonder how people still can live and breathe there…

  • Beth Winter Says:

    give me your heart and i’ll plant you a memory

    This is beautiful and this one line will linger with me. Thank you so much for sharing.

  • Grace Says:

    Kelly, a beautiful post ~ This part really resonated with me:

    what have you done with the flowers? even the weeds
    are afraid to breech
    your barrier of sophisticated cement

    give me your heart and i’ll plant you a memory

    give me your disease and i’ll grow you a cure

    give me your hope and i’ll bury the bones you cannot hide

  • Björn Rudberg (brudberg) Says:

    How the world move away from nature into the artificial… to just see the bareness of concrete… where are the season’s shift, where are the buzzing of bees… ? a barren world to be read in so many ways…

  • Scott Hastie Says:

    Very Spooky indeed I was just going to ciut & paste and applaud the same section Grace cut out… And use the word resonant too. This stanza is absolutely outstanding, I think… With Best Wishes Scott http://www.scotthastie.com

  • Ginny Brannan Says:

    “give me your heart and i’ll plant you a memory

    give me your disease and i’ll grow you a cure”

    Lines of hope amid such devastation and desecration. Powerful piece.

  • Delaina Says:

    So many contradictions and yet so true how they all tie together to be the same. I love this poem absolutely brilliant. Cheers!

  • billgncs Says:

    be the anchor, the place that we’ve forgotten but yearn for. this was nicely said

  • Truedessa Says:

    Absolutely love these two lines

    give me your heart and i’ll plant you a memory

    give me your disease and i’ll grow you a cure

  • Dark Angel Says:

    “every morning we sing you back into existence” love that!

  • Madhura Says:

    Absolutely brilliant! ‘Give me your heart, I’ll plant you a memory’ this line is phenomenal! Also ‘your bird in a cage of freedom’…
    I love how the contrasts all talk about the same thing, the city life, the noise and concrete…

  • CC Champagne Says:

    This is beautiful on so many levels, how it could describe a lonely heart being saved or nature being saved from pollution. In any case, I really enjoyed the read!

  • vivchook Says:

    This is powerful, and beautiful, Kelly. So many gems here, providing rich images. Planting memories in hearts – wow! And the last line, too. Wonderful writing. Thank you. x.Vivienne (OneVoicePoetry)

  • Marina Sofia Says:

    What a terrible, desolate landscape – frightening, haunting poem!

  • wolfsrosebud Says:

    I felt the pull of life and death here

  • Laurie Kolp Says:

    I do hope you’re planning on publishing a poetry book!!

  • jacqueline dick Says:

    I love the oxymoronic last few stanzas…very effective. this is a powerful, important, and beautifully executed piece… ~jackie~

  • Gay Says:

    You capture the urban underside. It is a contradiction in beauty and in function to the way we were designed to live. This is the result of overpopulation and centralized jobs plus big business running (and ruining) our farms. Sad but beautifully penned.

  • Glenn Buttkus Says:

    A wonderful poem, dystopian, harsh, yet fiercely hopeful & beautiful, like the last bird with bright feathers still living in the gray/grey confines of the cosmopolis. Love the line /give me your hope & I’ll bury the bones you cannot hide/ makes me glad I live in a small town suburb on the foothill fringes of the Cascades, only a few minutes from the urban art throbs, and only a few more to the forest palaces, deep mountain lakes, and deer runs.

  • Square-Peg Karen Says:

    This is brilliant, Kelly! As I finished reading I sat with chills up and down my spine (not the “Oh, horror!” kind, but the “ohmygod this is to-the-bone-brilliance” kind – where the words insist on being read over and over, savored).

    Lines that wrapped themselves around my heart (ok, the all did – but these I”m memorizing):
    “i have your bird in a cage of freedom
    every morning we sing you back into existence” – wow! Thank you. Thank you!

  • ds Says:

    Oh! the bird in the cage of freedom, and
    “even the weeds
    are afraid to breech
    your barrier of sophisticated cement”

    Truly dystopian, seemingly without hope, and yet the bird is resuscitated (or is it). Love the contradictions and the construction of this. Thank you.

  • kkkkaty Says:

    Just great with the contradictions and images throughout….that pillow is not so unfamiliar 😉

  • grapeling Says:

    especially the ‘give me’ lines ring true, Kelly ~

  • Anna :o] Says:

    Love you wonderful words and contradictions – sad they are – but incredibly good.
    Anna :o]

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