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About The North Coast times-eagle. (Wheeler, Oregon) 1971-2007 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2002)
PAGE 11 NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , MARPRIL 2002 ELEGY FOR A CLEARCUT FOREST Five months after your death, I come like the others Among the slash and stumps, across the cratered Three square miles of your graveyard: Nettles and groundsel first out of the jumble, Then fireweed and bracken Have come to light where you, for ninety winters, Had kept your shadows. The creek has gone as thin as my wrist, nearly dead To the world at the dead end of summer, Guttering to a pool where the tracks of an earth-mover Showed it the way to falter underground, Now pearly everlasting Has grown to honor the deep dead cast of your roots For a bitter season. Those water- and earth-led roots decay for winter Below my feet, below the fir seedlings Planted in your place (one out of ten alive In the summer drought), Below the small green struggle of the weeds For their own ends, below grasshoppers, The only singers now. The chains and cables and steel teeth have left Nothing of what you were: I hold my hands over a stump and remember A hundred and fifty feet above me branches No longer holding sway. In the pitched battle You fell and fell again and went on falling And falling and always falling. BARBARA GRANT Out in the open where nothing was left standing (The immoral equivalent of a forest fire), I sit with my anger. The creek will move again, Come rain and snow, gnawing at raw defiles, Clear-cutting its own gullies. As selective as reapers stalking through wheatfields, Selective loggers go where the roots go. f > K ) 'w.'V' LETTER TO THE DEVIL I was walkin’ down the street one day And my mind came back to me It had been gone Such a long, long time I was but a child you see PRICKSONG I am cursed by a large penis which I planted in a flower pot in my living room When it grew, like a cactus, it looked thirsty and, being kindly at heart, I allayed its thirst with water. It sprouted wings. Now it flies around the house and sings at me. Once I tried to shoot it down but horrified, it shriveled up into a ball, retracting everything it had ever said to me. What could I do? I didn't have the heart to follow through. Now it tries to get in bed with me I am afraid It is so big. It looks so thirsty. It is never satisfied. Last night when I pushed it back, it cried. -DAVID WAGONER BLIND LION In America the clocks are no longer round, there is no need for circular motion or the rhythmic motion of the rest of the uni verse. In America there is only the black plastic face of the machine — a blind monetary consciousness that will rationalize and destroy anything that is in the way of the God-like numbers that must register in their proper places. In America there is one direction — the forward motion f the machine . There is one season — harvest. There is one attitude — conquest. I remember I was happy Playing in the dirt Then you put me in a prison school And you made me go to work With the taxes that you took from me You just played more tricks Building bombs and jails And labs for scientists Tried to brainwash me That I ail Tried to make me Weak and frail Well now my mind is back with me And I see real well All the tricks you played on me All my friends I’ll tell You ole fox, you think you’re smart Your power is fading fast You left your god, you left your heart You weren’t made to last I will not pay taxes As it gives energy to you As you sit with all your whores On your island by your pool As you think of ways To take away my pay Then turn right around And put me back to work all day -MARILYN COFFEY In America they are very sensitive, they chase fruit flies with military combat planes. A fine mist: the noxious breath of their men tality filters through the air settling on delicate white flowers for the children to bring home. ILLUSIONS -RICHARD BLAKELY WOUNDED & PISSED who will it hit, when will it strike what hideous provocation will be shocked shitless they all pretend to know with their long snouts and darkened clones but the earth hides her children with myriad chaos charm whose side am I on...oh I love America but how must I prove it children are grasping and I don't feel like rasping my mind is thick with effacious pretension rhetoric without history's blood...blinded by curse carrying Satan's flag of death where is the glory of grisly dominance from animals with boots on hiding from myselves these banzai darts ricochet from dark annals while I ponder from whence came this outraged conscience I have been in paradise quite a few times but it was tingled with grim repose I have loved the wilderness but not the innocence of danger so take lively heed you children of the new left and be wary and wise for the rolling of unwieldy forces in mistaken ardor wouldst trample thee asunder the time is nigh to gather your gear and tighten your souls and minds for dear freedom has been garnished and for a time gutted let's not declare true war but ride the storm and resist from within the horror from the earth comes strength and from the sky magic grace leave your computers and phones at home and head for the woods with me and we will lift the powers of freedom high and know our true selves well -CHRIS KRAEMER glimpses of ice frozen clear cold sharp and me dressed in black and silver blades on the ice moving with passion and fire quickly clearly sharply slicing the air and the ice You keep getting more I keep getting poorer If we all stopped paying taxes We could shut your door Cause let me tell you dummy We don’t need you any more We can take care of ourselves The old, the frail, and the poor Cause we know our love is strong And you’re rotten to the core I was walkin' down the street one day And my mind came back to me It had been gone Such a long long time I was but a child you see I remember I was happy Playing in the dirt -KIM GELE -DANIEL ELEY JAN 30, 2002, 9:15 A.M., LYING IN STATE Last night I heard the rumbling of banks crumbling Last night I heard the biggest, longest, loudest, lie Happy birthday, Dick Cheney When the fuck are you going to die? The Smirk is back The Sneer backs him up Everyone can see the lie As he reads it from transparent screens He's rehearsed it four times He loves the family business -R LOUIS RICHARDS
