1. Trees in the city (at winter)

we are surrounded by pavement.
shallow roots and
bare branches.
perhaps strung with christmas lights
or strangled by these strings of lights?
fragile / frail / awkward
we stand in parking lots, by sidewalks
– illusions that the city has not been
taken over by concrete and pavement.
birds avoid us
as if we don’t belong.

2. Vending machines… and their opposites

picture, for a moment,
a vending machine.
what does it see?
when we participate in
this exchange –
money for goods, or not-so-goods.
material profit, material waste.
do you think we sometimes act like
buying machines?

3. Graffiti

dull surfaces defaced
by thoughtless scribbles
of rebel expression.
bold eyesore.
letters entangled,
hardly readable.

but there is a deeper wound,
a scar that we leave / inflict
upon this planet / a betrayal.
sometimes without thinking
or noticing / careless,
without regard (not watching
out for, not guarding) –
sometimes deliberate.
we are the vandals, the culprits,
the perpetrators who perpetuate
this crime, this graffiti.