Florida
Florida, 2000 A.D.
A panting tongue of a tiring nation,
lapping a tawdry cornucopia
poured like broken baubles down the tar-black bands
through the northern end of Southern mold
past the plastic behemoths burgeoning in the center,
garish against the palms more sere than green,
unto the southern end of Northern glitz.
And around the sullen fringe
where sand and sea once softly kissed
there is instead a mad-strung necklace
of stucco, grit, macadam and glitter.
And here in this evolving Canaan,
man and nature into a new millennium,
neither yet totally victor nor victim,
dwell between what was and what’s to come,
waiting while shards of time
kaleidoscope the next tableau.
(2001)
