IT'S GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY

Furrowed fields of houses crop the hills.
Gumtrees lie like 'pick up sticks'
and wild flowers don't have a chance.

'For Sale' signs edge the horizon
where demarcations are clearly drawn.
Cement quells all erosion
and the bulldozers' avalanche.

Chimneys smoke out the landscape
where once shrieking hawks nested.
Now starlings' calls seem benign
on the newly installed telephone line.

(From: Out Of Love And Other Poems, by Kitty Madeson (1993) Stone Soup Poets, Boston.)

© Kitty Madeson