The world’s a giant, sooty ashtray
holes in walls, with smoke-black stains
our sins, the earth’s full burning pain
the trash, we dump in bucket loads
glass on sidewalks and crushed in roads
they cut the ground with fractured nodes
each hole spies a different window
where shadows lurk, and poisons go
or ghosts of once a rugged life
got tired and offed his scathing wife
then he himself, with stabbed knife
graffiti it will sometimes be
the smoking offal of gangs and rings
drugs, they rot people about
smacked loves and lives near inside-out
drunks they wreck the homes and highways
then steal the lives of others‘ days
pollution, the final slow demise
as it kills our land and skies
and construction, always promising trees
I know that I will never see
land finally will a desert be
and burning, screaming volcanoes
will torch what’s left in fiery throes
when ashes cool and finally mend
creation can begin again.
-Sandra Johnson
(Muse photo courtesy of Unsplash)
Quite a true and amazing image of what we’ve done to the world. Well done!
Thanks- this one will probably be submitted to the anthology.
This poem is so good!! Oh I love it! Very true, I agree.
Thanks Elizabeth- sad that It was too so easy to write.
Terrific poem! Love ekphrastic and this pic inspired you well to you cover so many sins of the world. Made me glad I am celebrating 10-years smoke-free. Helping me, helping the planet. Thanks for writing this and sharing it!
Jrturek I celebrated 10 years smoke free just this past November. I’m glad we’re making this world a cleaner place just from our 10 plus years of cigarettes combined! Thanks for reviewing!
Hi Sandi! The first line of this poem is absolutely brilliant! It punches the reader in the gut, and you can’t look away from the rest of the poem. It’s dystopian, but all too true and too real a picture of the world we’re living in. Throughout, you keep the mood that first line established. And the last line is that perfect little ray of hope after cataloging the “world’s sins”: “when ashes cool and finally mend, creation can begin again.” Great job with this!
I’d love it if you reviewed some of my poems, too!
https://thepoetrymarathon.com/blog/author/bethf1128
Hi Sandi! The first line of this poem is absolutely brilliant! It punches the reader in the gut, and you can’t look away from the rest of the poem. It’s dystopian, but all too true and too real a picture of the world we’re living in. Throughout, you keep the mood that first line established. And the last line is that perfect little ray of hope after cataloging the “world’s sins”: “when ashes cool and finally mend, creation can begin again.” Great job with this!
Thanks- It’s becoming clear that this one is going to be one of the two I’m submitting to the anthology. I’m trying to decide which of the others I’ll choose – let me know what you think of Ode to Light.
I’ll be happy to look at yours. 👍
Beth -I cant see any poems besides two posts. Help!