Fierce Green Fire
by Treesong
(12 November 1999)
The steel-toe boot of progress
stomps down on a pile of dismembered trees
that were standing when Columbus
killed his first Indian.
A river of blacktop blood
tears across the Great Plains
and the West is subdued
with sterile shopping malls
and eight-lane information superhighways.
Manifest Destiny
has crushed the land
beneath a thick rubber heel,
but behind the red, white, and blue
that is draped across the country
like a flag over a casket
you can still hear
the call of the wild.
Take an American flag
out to a dark forest clearing
at midnight.
Dangle the Stars and Stripes
over a raging campfire
and watch the hungry flames
lick across the face of the flag.
When the synthetic fibers
begin to burn
a fierce green fire
will rise up into the moonlight
and the howl of the wolf
will fill your lungs
with a burning passion
that blacktop sprawls
and shopping malls
can never conquer.