Street

After days indoors, in the woods,
A few moments in the village,
The pavement of a mid-sized town
Thunders, reeks, and swarms with bodies.

A piece of shit pick-up truck thumps
Someone's clumps of awesome music,
Making the change in a busker's
Acoustic guitar case shiver.

I pretend not to be impressed
With my species' plague on the world,
Sensing how meaningless it is,
But, goddam, this is just one speck

Of modern town in the mountains,
A small dot of population
On any global cities map,
And it's not just loud and crowded,

It's a piece of flying island,
A chunk of anthro ecozone
With the same sparrows and pigeons
And carbon-monoxide backbeats

As can be found in any city,
Mutatis mutandis, on earth.
These are not just loads of bipeds--
A monstrous nonsense congregates.