Steel succumbs to air, water, time –
Imposing skyscrapers are
dismantled by nature
without man around
to maintain their structures
A man’s joyous birth quickly turns to
a last weak gasp from a corroded body
Nature takes less
than a lifetime to reclaim him
for compost
A baby daughter born into
a poor rural village
becomes more valued
as live fresh squirming pig feed
Big pigs salivate and masticate
Pork Choppers flossed with human DNA
The only joy
is swine not going hungry.
***
On the first-world urban frontline,
stiff with rigor mortis
heart perma-chilled
baby fat depleted
skin yellowed
no re-thaw potential of any worth
not for human consumption or
black-market organ trade
a still-life in infinite slumber
awaiting the warmth of a delayed spring
is offered up for city council’s clean-up collection
welcomed by crushing arms and compacting jaws
of a houseproud, territorial litter truck
bub’s cadaver could have been recycled
a dead mule stuffed with drugs
smuggled through customs in the arms of
a female acid-washed of motherly instincts
***
Politicians avert their eyes
on cue with
dramatic ‘humility’
no little bundle of joy
doing good for mother earth as future compost
no burden on a non-existent or crook welfare system
‘the world is the way it is’
***
And about our innocent displaced siblings
stranded in civil strife who’ll starve silently
off-our-screen, off-our-radar:
Not on ‘our watch’
‘not on today’s agenda’
Man does his best to save Himself.
Published online and in print by Papercuts, Desi Writers Lounge Dec 2013
Kathryn Yuen 