Many of the writers worth reading
loved their land, whatever land
there was to love
Thoreau loved the Northeast
Ed Abby the Southwest
Muir the Sierras which define California
for so many artists and hikers
The Northwest has Gary Snyder, to some extent
but he went all Nipponese and Zen
I love the parts of California that have died
scenic ghosts of happy pasts
buried beneath a lahar of stucco and chain stores
feeding off the tribute of dessicated
Eastern Sierra lakes
Built at the edge of the forests of yore
now standing murdered by the
residentially oriented fire suppression
that contributed to preventable
bark beetle infestations
droughts and dried sap
views lost beneath the lead and sulfur
there are six ubiquitous
criteria air pollutants
California now reeks of them all
from the ground ozone
to the nitrogen oxides
my memories are smothered
and as such I am in the Northwest
Portland, the 1950's California I never knew
that I had adolescent dreams of
healthy forests and local agriculture
water and rain
community and conservation
but I have to wonder
where are the bear and lynx
now so prevalently absent from
the Southern Cascades
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