Tuesday, January 17, 2012

BUILT

BUILT
(the song of an ancient architect)

Now that I’ve drawn the dreams, driven the stakes
destroyed deserts by division and development
crammed construction into corn-fields
built boxes in bean-fields
Now that I’ve penned the plans, fucked-up the forests
for fortune and foreclosure, plundered prairies
for profit, lost the lakeshores
Now that I’ve cantilevered cabins over cliffs and
hurried highways into hinterlands
Now that I’ve populated the pines
and peopled the pristine
Now that I’ve roofed-over the rural
Now that I’ve floored-over the flood-plain
Now that I’ve blueprinted the Blue Ridge
Now that my pencil
Now that my client
Now that the mortgage
Now that the bank
Now that the zoning
Now that the economy’s in the tank
Now that your hopes are diminished
May I rest? Am I finished?

~ Ralph Murre

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ralph--way to go!
Charlie

jeanie said...

yeah. love it.

J. Glenn Evans said...

Yeah, you said it all!

Jeff Winke said...

Oh yeah!!!

Al DeGenova said...

Whoa! Nice job...or maybe it wasn't such a nice job. But great poem.

John Brzezinski said...

Yup. And then there were the developers, the bankers, the mortgage brokers, the real estate sales professionals, the zoning board members, and the politicians who made it all possible.

Annie said...

Ralph - yes sometimes a poet HAS to say it and once again you've "said it" soulfully, perfectly... Thanks for the inspiration, Annie

Kris Thacher said...

Ralph, you build gracious houses, poem by poem, where no resource is destroyed and where all are welcomed into your clear space.

Maja said...

Ralph,

Beautifully said, and as always, I hear the cadences of your voice speaking it, especially the lines all starting with "Now."

Maja

Cheoy Lee said...

This feels like a poem that should be sung, or at least read aloud! I love the rhythm and the musicality of it.