We are waiting for a dust storm
to obliterate all
that transpired throughout another day
of angry rhetoric, talk
about who will be deported
and who will save on taxes. It’s always
the same set of absolutes, the same
transgressions and lapses
of character
flying back and forth
from candidate to candidate
each with so much to say
about what’s wrong with the other.
Then the news show
begins on television, just as the air begins
to darken and the wind
stirs in the treetops. Good evening,
tonight we have in studio . . .
and the professors straighten their ties
before describing what happens to the poorest,
none of whom is invited
to say firsthand
how it feels
to be down and so far out
they don’t care who gets elected.
Nobody yet
has mentioned rising temperatures
or deforestation. It looks
as though they’re going
to save the dollar first, then use it
to buy up all the high ground
when the seas are rising, when
snow has been replaced by dust.
David Chorlton
Illustration Nick Victor