3.12.2008

Gobbledygook (Protest Poem)
for Professor Price


where I come from the plant is growing

I see it

at night
from my bedroom window
burning the sky's red glow

I inhale black smoke hot
like a cigarette and hack
caffeine arrogance
streetlight poetry

see

when I walk by they all flicker
like birthday candles: how I know
this is my neighborhood
my town
my polluted sky

see

my friends and me
we sip beers in basements
we cliff sit and smoke dope
we watch the clouds

see,

we drive 95 and 202

'this is romance,'
we think but don't say
over homecoming shakes
at the Charcoal Pit

see

in time
the creek will lead to the ocean

for now
I catch tadpoles in the slime

see

gobbledygook wins every time

see

where I come from
I am the power plant
this is my polluted sky