Poem: Prolific Plantings

Poem: Prolific Plantings

Prolific Plantings

These carefully sown crops

selectively planted in welcoming settings

to blossom like fireworks bursting

from receptive mother earth

instant blossoms of blood red hue

spattered with flesh and blood confetti

the sacrifice of children by their elders

who once confronted differences

with arrow and sword but now

dismember from a distance beyond

the limits of time a heritage lottery


market driven forces demand more

mass production fifty million plantings

not enough the subtle soldier

mines the fields and plods to bed

to sleep in safety satisfied to know

more seedlings await his husbandry

from busy factories smug shareholders

his boots will march on march on

no limbless soldier will he be

the surviving kids will need no shoes

a wooden leg or two will do


Anonymous

From GLW issue 254