Occupation

Occupation

  by Bruce Toien

A linking of arms

Against the brusque rush

Of hooves and batons

Beating on black Lexan shields

Meant for defense …

Against defenselessness.

 

We feint back

And the line holds,

Face to visored face

With helmeted brothers and sisters

Black clad in the night,

Servants of order …

Whether eager or heartbroken.

(It’s not you, but the machine we’re fighting)

 

We are the grass under old tarmac,

Growing through sunlit cracks

Crazing the lifeless black …

Asphalt.

We are tender green vines

Twining up through

Imposing dead towers

Of steel and glass,

Ozymandias monuments to mad avarice:

Rapturous, seductive, euphoric …

And deadly.

 

Yes, a rootling can split a rock

Yes, grass can push through

The brittlest pavement.

Life will not be denied,

As it probes

Patient and persistent …

Reaching for the light.

-:- Bruce Toien