Expedition
       

When the fact of peak oil began to seep,
as these things do, through mental
cinderblocks, people bought SUVs.
This reference may seem adventitious,
but isn't. A particularly fat one
sped round a corner. A boy (quite young,
I can't tell ages) was running toward
that curb. He appeared to be seeing
some lovely commodity or destiny.
And stopped, inches from
the car, which raced on.
The father (had he lost control?
been distracted?) ran up and berated/
embraced him (the phrases and reasoning
came I thought from the mother)
and pulled him crying away. But what struck me
was the kid's expression, stopping -
pudgy arms wide, eyes wide with sudden complete
disillusionment. (And the fact that,
though part of a system, he did stop.)

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Copyright © 2018 Frederick Pollack All rights reserved
from Landscape with Mutant
Smokestack Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission