September 2018
I was born in Austria, grew up in Manchester, England, and lived for several years in Vienna before moving to Phoenix in 1978. Arizona’s landscapes and wildlife have become increasingly important to me and a significant part of my poetry. Meanwhile, I retain an appetite for reading Eugenio Montale, W. S. Merwin, Tomas Tranströmer and many other, often less celebrated, poets.
They Call it Growth
The earth’s memory runs deeper
than the shovel can reach
at ground-breaking
for another new mall in which
the stores offer clothes
for people impatient for fashion
to change, souvenir models made in China
of the saguaro that fell
to make room for them, televisions
that show other countries’ animals,
and garden chairs designed
for comfort when they face toward
the space where the sun used to set
before houses blocked the view.
It happens so fast,
the eviction of wildlife, the laying down
of roads, the raising of a frame
and its subsequent walls,
then the final sweeping change
of landscape into conformity.
Look around. Where are you?
Each new development carbon copies
another. The flags at the entrance
to the gated condominiums
have no country. The map shows you
the route to get here
but not where here is. Welcome home.
They Call it Growth
The earth’s memory runs deeper
than the shovel can reach
at ground-breaking
for another new mall in which
the stores offer clothes
for people impatient for fashion
to change, souvenir models made in China
of the saguaro that fell
to make room for them, televisions
that show other countries’ animals,
and garden chairs designed
for comfort when they face toward
the space where the sun used to set
before houses blocked the view.
It happens so fast,
the eviction of wildlife, the laying down
of roads, the raising of a frame
and its subsequent walls,
then the final sweeping change
of landscape into conformity.
Look around. Where are you?
Each new development carbon copies
another. The flags at the entrance
to the gated condominiums
have no country. The map shows you
the route to get here
but not where here is. Welcome home.
© 2018 David Chorlton
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