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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Shot out of a Cannon” cc&d (v248) (the January / February 2014 Issue) You can also order this 6"x9" issue as a paperback book:

Order this writing in the book a New Pen the cc&d Jan. - June 2014 collection book		get the 394 page Jan. - June 2014 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Everything Human is Ruined

Andy Roberts

The path I follow between the road and the fences
is overgrown with weeds and litter.
I walk through trash, breathing in the smell of wild lilies,
wade through chest-high stalks of joe-pye weed,
pushing the stems aside. I stop and stare
at the brown eye of a grasshopper
clinging to the stem of a giant thistle.
The rough boards of the fences age immediately
to a weathered gray, and white paper
bags and cups, blown by wind, pile up at the bases.
Everything human is ruined.

Even the weeds are faded, sprouts of yellowed grasses
pushing up between asphalt, sidewalk cracks.
Poison ivy, Virginia creeper, trumpet vine
crawling over fences, tearing them down with their weight.
From green vines, bees roar,
crawling over orange and pink blossoms.
I step carefully around red ant mounds high as my knee,
dodge spiders large as my hand
hanging from webs one thousand times stronger than steel.

The human world is nothing
but hissing tires from road,
two second snatch of music,
catch of paper bag in weeds.
I walk on, following the old power lines,
the old leaning poles coated with creosote
leaning away from civilization,
leading away from the ruins.

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