nature isn't clean
but a crack in the sidewalk,
soiled lots with foreign pebbles.
beer bottles shattered into a mosaic
beside a railroad track.
strewn buckets,
half-used condoms, wet moldy shirts.

nature is brambles
not exotic birds.
the thickets behind Chi-Chi's
and the park-and-ride.
thistles rising
between styrofoam cups
and dented bottle caps.

nature is a lawn of dandelions
not the grass in between.
the coughing refineries, brown mountains of refuse.
nature is seagulls and rats,
flies and sparrows.
not the egret.
not the humped-back whale.

nature is a plastic ziploc bag that tumbles away.

nature is a crow.
and a crow isn't picky:
hot dogs are as tasty
as banana slugs.

© 1990 - 2003 Katharina Woodworth