NaPoWriMo – Poem #12

In my neighborhood, there sits a fenced off mudpit. One lonely ducks swims through the muddy waters where once there lay a pond. Ducks, geese, squirrels, and butterflies all danced and floated along these shores and through these trees. Now this landscape is little more than mud-slick banks and barren limbs. The duck looks to us for food, as if we might have some morsel to toss over the fence, but we have none. Heavy machinery growls and heaves in the distance, replacing the chattering noises of animals – their presence is little more than ghostly impressions that I summon from memory. The air smells of raw dirt, foul water, and exhaust. Gone are the smells of pink and purple blossoms and fresh cut grass. The lone duck swims back to the center of his tiny mud pool. This heap his solitary kingdom.

Man reshapes the land.
Beauty turns to lifeless brown.
Nature takes its leave.

NOTE: This poem rather loosely follows the Day 12 prompt from NaPoWriMo.net – to write a haibun that takes in the natural landscape of the place you live.