A Poem by Duane Locke

TERRESTRIAL ILUMINATION, NO 269

What if one took a trip to North Carolina to see
In the Smoky Mountains a tree.
What would this one see. A common sense slave mentality
Educated efficiently by our expensive education system
In buying and selling would see lumber. How many boards
For building a casino or a bank could be sawed from that large trunk.
Perhaps, the lumber could be used to build a house on a lot
Where cabbage palms, both those with fronds and the old
Without along with all forms of life were bulldozed away.
The wife, through education and media advertising had transformed herself
From a human being into a shopping machine would look
At the changing autumn colors of this Smoky Mountain tree
And see a design for new dresses that she would buy
And hang in the closet but never wear. The signifier “tree” has many
signifieds.


Duane Locke lives in Tampa, Florida near anhinga,
gallinules, raccoons, alligators, etc.
He has published 6,680 poems, includes 29 books of poems. His latest
book publication, April 2012,
Is DUANE LOCKE, THE FIRST DECADE, 1968-1978, BITTER OLEANDER PRESS.
This book is a republication
Of his first eleven books, contains 333 pages. Order from
http://www.bitteroleander.com/releases.html,
Or Amazon.