it’s like a ghost town now
& O the distant hills
are a more ghostly blue
than before
now even a few stray locals
come & go stranger even now
than they were before &
O the dear police cars patrol
with speakers are more ghostly too
& through my bedroom window
the gable ended stone house wall
grows evermore iconic faces
than before even now
as daily the days flock by
more than before now even now
strange fruit in the wet market
a vampire kiss
human blood human meat
but save the economy not the ecology
surveillance surveillance surveillance
monitor our sick brains
& bury the remains in silicon valley
until hyssops burst through
the green embedded
fissures of our padded cells
& the pavements crack beneath
save the insects death to pesticide
save the world with clay balls
like caryatides we bear alms to our own epitaphs
the hours of the street endure their empathy
with landscapes ordered from the abettoir
cockroach traffic cockroach computers
user friendly amplify & invade degrade
habitats “exotic wildlife threatens humans”
population growth summons armament