A decapitated doll’s head 
Discarded fifty years on whims of a child 
Drifts down a river of sludge. 
 
Entropy of flight set in long ago — 
Oaks home to birds without wings 
Sliced off and songs silenced 
During the polystyrene invasion. 
New toys, faulty toys, metal boxes in transit: 
Timed to fail, this throw-away culture. 
Exit on the right, trash bin overflowing, 
Going home, ignoring Typhoid Mary. 
 
Yesterday’s bags, broken glass, six-pack rings 
Silently build, fail to decay, and man defies 
Sick with the mask of Mount Trashmore. 
 
Every Tide that keeps clothes clean 
Never recedes; but pretense remains, 
Satisfied with comfortable lives, 
Single-minded happiness pursuit 
Terrified animals cannot comprehend — 
Desperate just to survive the compounds 
Seeping into their soil, 
Licking fur, preening, ingesting… 
 
Gasoline obsession turns to oiled feathers 
Slicked down to ground; unable to fly, survive 
Expecting no savior from the arsonists.