Odd to be back here


Driven out by government offensives
getting stuck in traffic
the refugees could face death
or worse capture, then enslavement
at the hands of mysterious figures
who haunt the west coast
like vestiges of an age when men
still measured themselves with iron
and women were content to follow them

A California couple was rumored to have created
a mini-savannah replete with zebras, giraffes, cheetahs
free range humans will complete the menagerie

the husband spoke on condition of anonymity
his words echoed eternally in the famous war photo
of the soldier who decoded the coffee bean’s genes

as slaves they will adjust to life,
breathe on their own
as they recover from operations
anthropomorphization in reverse