Downhill Side - Erin Riley

[Larry Robinson]

 Downhill Side

 
In my dream

I am a mountain

With high priced homes

Newly constructed

On my breasts

And a strip mall pouring over

On my hips and thighs

 

And on my downhill side

Someone’s abandoned garden

Fruit trees whose best seasons

Are long past

Thorny vines gone wild

The dried skeletons

Of vegetables not nurtured

Or picked

Overgrown grasses

Nobody wants

 

Even so

After the rains

It will try again

Sprouts will come forward

Like young, idealistic volunteers

They will compete with the wild overgrowth

Staking out their plots

Choosing their weapons

 

Relentless optimism

Virtuous and mighty

 

	- Erin Riley