Thursday, February 18, 2010

Post of a dead poem?

This poem was handed out at the beginning of a class I took years ago, I can't remember which but it must have been in 2005 or prior because that was when I successfully searched for it online, and I know that was well after I'd first read it. Even then I had a hard time finding it, but now I can't find anything at all, not even a good return on the author or publishing company. Without a clue as to how popular it was to begin with, I still find it unnerving that something like this could just fall out of existence (search-able existence online, that is.)
*The spacing here isn't correct, I'm sure, which is a shame.

archaeology- diary of a dead race
by Umar Aki Williams, Travelling at the Speed of Life, Bold Publications, 1994

we used our trees for toilet paper
to wipe our filthy butts
at first we had so many trees
of course, we never dreamed
we'd have to wipe so much

out atmosphere began to thin
when our trees were nearly gone
but toilet paper felt so good
so fluffy & so soft
designer colors & patterns
to match our toilet walls
we made it varied textures
fine for wealthy to coarse
for poor
so much toilet paper
toward the end we wore

toilet paper clothes-
fine for wealthy, coarse for poor

we reached at last a great
impasse- our trees grew no more
which served to spur a new growth industry
n bottled atmosphere

we had high profit margins so of course
our prophets were ignored
air sold better than water n convenient
personal sizes with monthly
inflating prices from world-
wide franchise fast air/burger

shake & fries
carry out stores complete with com
puterized service
at drive-thru windows
yet air still got rare, too
xpensive for most folks...

the poor (as usual) were the first to choke
& the sick- the babies- the very old
soon the "healthy" working class
was breathless

as atmo-manufacturing broke down
inevitable, eventually
no air was to be found even for
the rich & powerful...

& yes, before the end we had to wipe
our dirty butts on our clothes...

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for that, Beth. That's awesome. The part that took me was "soon the 'healthy' working class / was breathless." I read more fiction than I do poetry, and listen to music far more than both, so I don't want to seem pretentious. . . Anyways, there's a guy named Taha Mahhammid Ali (not spelled right) - he's a Palestinian poet which that one reminds me of.

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