Nature’s skin
Painted in pavement
Suffocated
In pretty, plastic places
And massive cigarettes
Which latch onto the sky
And suck and suck
Leeching it dry
We snort their smog
Flop and flail
Like fish we’ve drowned
In iridescent oil
We sit across her, Nature
Leaning back in our seats
Declare “check”
Lifting chins, smirking
But her?
She is patient, clever
Lets us strike each of her cheeks
Spit at her feet
Tear chunks off her flesh
With teeth she gave us
She does not flinch
Only smiles
Like she knows
A secret we don’t
She knows a secret
We should know
We know
We know what she knows
And feign we do not
That goddess
She’s spinning her web
Sowing networks of fibers
Cracks veining through sidewalks
From the seam, life sprouts
We see it
Spew the weedkiller
Tear it out by the roots
With salt, we extinguish
Still, she smiles
Takes our heads in her hands
Caressing
Pressing lips to our faces
Then into hungry
Snarling mouths
Breathes life
Gazing deeply into our eyes
SNAP
Our necks
She breaks them
We go down twitching
We make our moves
To best her
Smother her in asphalt
Sacrifice the pawns
But there she grows
In the slits she carves
We never win
For this is not a game
And we cannot live
Apart from what we are
