Literary Crumbs: Poems & Short Stories to Savor by D. Ryan Lafferty

Separated from our natural state, we’ve made our homes a box.
Three-story mortgaged coffins with all the doors and windows locked.

Mow down that lawn and gather up those lost upsetting leaves
and burn them in a fire pit to keep our homestead clean.

Polish up those floors and paint all the walls bright white,
with antiseptic corridors, bathed in artificial light.

How many years has it been since we’ve left our sterile box?
Do we remember what it’s like to climb up, upon the rocks?

To walk along a winding trail strewn with twigs and fallen trees;
to hear the buzzing terror of all too-closely flying bees?

Or to feel a moment’s menace of a spider’s web that clings,
broken inadvertently, a casualty of spring.  

The sweet fragrance of the flowers, the tangy herbal-smelling weeds,
and a mellow note of autumn creeps from those brightly-colored leaves.

Such wonders once surrounded us, but we’ve left them all behind,
traded for some empty crates made of concrete, nails, and pine.

by D. Ryan Lafferty

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