Wrong from the Start

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(or "The Beast System Blues")
 
 
 
Wrong from the start
 
slow roads through this
brokenhearted
asphalt flower
business
 
strayed from the pack
into bits of byway passing
the gloomy pine
of a much maligned  
interstate split
 
an eminent domain  
for crooks & culvert-crawling
philistines and misanthropic desires
to decimate this boom car parking lot hole
with an off-the-grid wandering
a sprat-covered heath
for bulldozer sprawling
 
mortality & time forgotten
rivets in rivulets
enjoy rust and brawling
strangers crossing
to storefronts that face
impertinent friends  
on the cyborg wind
 
now streamlined
gravel-bound hermits
sandbagging faceless enemies
begrudging death & hope
from the backwater centuries
at refusing to budge
 
 
wrong from the start,
a slow road through  
tired & changing minds