We drove, ever slower, past the cotton candy sunset
A million puffs of pale sugar on a blueberry and peach tongue
Painting gold on the coffee stands and farms
Wisps of revolution buried in corn fields
Efforts of industry defeated by vegetation
A million shiny, waxy leaves embracing their sweet, warm gold
What is our beauty compared to yours?
Rain compared to heat cracked earth
And the bleats, brays and bellows of creatures I can never see
Pale and pink
Compared to dark and rich
What is my beauty compared to theirs, dear captain?
I am the pallid princess of spoiled kings who cackle and beg to suffer in privilege
What am I?
I am the alabaster adolescent of a kingdom made to forget its King
What am I?
I am the chalky child of forests and deserts and seas shrinking and expanding in fear and taunting of a patience waning star
One day we'll all drown in our greed and blood
And I weep for the children that fathered me
Leaving a legacy of corpses