Defeated

Defeated

A body wants to be sea

and choose

shades of turquoise, of tempest,

of calm. A body wants to be tree,

have branches inhabited,

roots feed off the ground,

                               and decide

modes of density, leaf shapes,

ways to burn.

How to explain

                  this era of polluted seas

spitting dust, smoke, ashes

a peck of salt.

How to explain

acres of burned

stumps, droughts,

the collapse

of a drifting horizon.