A deer wanders the streets.

Dazed, fear in its eyes.

The woodlands destroyed.

Bulldozers belch. Chain saws scream.

In a week is destroyed,

What it took centuries to build.

Day by day, another, yet another.

The wild creatures flee.

Nowhere to hide, a cruel death awaits.

A building is named.

The rats chatter and squeak.

Self-satisfied, they retreat into their holes.

Cars zoom by.

The deer is confused.

Two-legged rats squeak and point.

A lurid landscape emerges.

The wild habitat forever gone.

The soul of the city is destroyed.

What is the money for?

To squander and waste.

The precious jewel is smashed.

Me. Me. Me.

Take. Consume. Destroy.

Sterilize. Pave. Kill.

Lipstick on a pig.

The mirror shattered.

A legal menace festers.

Books over the water.

Money under the table.

A rotten stench permeates.

The process grinds on.

Bureaucrats shuffle papers.

The wild things scatter and hide.

Elsewhere wastelands abound.

Rotten buildings crumble and decay.

The answer? Destroy the precious jewels.

An era of meager malice.

For the rats a merry time.

For the wild things, a death knell.

The parasite moves on.

Ready for the next host.

An empty carcass is left behind.

The slaughter briefly pauses.

Of thousands, two are mourned.

Soon the death sentence continues.

A world of artificial pleasures.

Nature driven out from town.

Future generations robbed.

Daniel Goldman

Renton