Defacement of Innocence

So soon do we rush to tarnish
and then, with sad guilty hands
to deplete utterly, swiftly
the innocence of our youth

the garish defacement
of the imagination
that intuitively grasps
the truth of the fabulous

A jinn and the carpet ride
the theft of the silkie's skin
This hunchback so sick with love
all and more we cast aside

what did you hope to gain here
fine passion bleeding away
as an endless equation
soon lost to hard cold numbers

This is a poem of life

Basalt and falcons and motion and freedom
a physical communion intoning prayers
the wind holds the whisper of virtues
long lost in the city
the water has a course that it chooses
in dry seasons the easy course
In the wettest seasons it swallows the flood plain
Powerful fish struggling against its current
year in and out - moon waxing or on the wane
There are no bear here to eat them anymore
just giant mechanical turbines
and a wall of concrete taller than a fir tree
against this too they struggle
to keep their ancient family alive
blood and scale and water and man
to fight and love and give birth
to something like a vibrant future