Expedition Passport

by Ben Covey

Megafauna skeletons in
Endless urban expanse:
Take note of the crown-molding
Teeth tip and flesh-molding
Tyrannical, in all likelihood,
Predatory:
Fasteners and power tools
Faux-digestion trash-compactors
God-knows-what for blood,
My blood mingles with sidewalk
Fissure dandelion petals --
Pinprick pixels technicolor
Fragments -- floral -- faded
Bone meal as fertilizer,
Construction binder
Rust in acid rain,
Overfolding, crumbling
Calcification processes divesting
Economic avenues,
You can hear the heartbeat slowing
If you press your ear to pavement you’ll hear
Arterial decay,
Subway tunnel collapse kills 27
Megafauna skeletons in
Defunkt museum expanse,
Glass bead bombed out
Cat's-eye detail, silicate violence
Lightning strike over desert
Strikes lightning rod on 27th street
Brings Frankenstein thing to life:
Arterial decay raises heart disease death toll
Megalodon teeth and green costume wig
Looks like fossilized maniac
And I wonder if preserved Iceman
Ever murdered anyone. In all likelihood,
Predatory:
Teeth tip and flesh molding
Torn from megafauna bones,
Delicate proto-linguistic
Affirmations of self
Self-actualized fossilization processes
Defunct detail removed by Janitor
Waxing fossilized floor tiles:

Blood showers on hot tin roof
Cain kills Abel to
Tenth Avenue jazz band tune
Blood mingles with sidewalk
Mingles with dandelion

Petals dance in warm spring breeze

Ben Covey is a writer, poet, and musician currently residing in Illinois. His work has been published by the Academy of American Poets and NPR, among other places. When he is not writing, he sits in a dark room totally stationary, like an unwound automaton.