the smedley log - suburban scrawl

Suburban scrawl
(from before we got swallowed)

Your roads, once dusty,
now boldly encroach
on land we once treasured,
but now simply own.

Our reach
has exceeded our grasp
of all that
once signified value.
The blights
you can never take back;
the damage
you can’t ever undo.

Our fathers once tilled the earth,
aware there was more to its worth
than sheer commodity,
and that some things are
sweeter when shared.
But these we discard.

When those lessons are lost,
as are all the ideals we once followed,
sweet amnesia’s erased
all we cherished before we got swallowed.

Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey

Powerful truth you’ve captured here Howard. Love those last two lines. Great verbiage throughout.

Thanks.

The line “before we got swallowed” was the first line that kept sticking in my mind when I started writing this, but I couldn’t find a suitable way to fit it in. Only after I gave up on it did I finally figure out where/how to use it.

Having grown up in an area that has vastly changed since I was a small child (the perfect example of suburban sprawl), I really identified with the concept of feeling like everything I knew as a young child was being swallowed. I still remember farmland and wide open spaces, now overtaken by subdivisions, shopping centers and business parks. I know a certain level of progress is inevitable, but the lack of balance still stuns me.

Parts of the poem were also inspired by another poem that appeared in the local community college literary review at least ten years ago. I believe it was called “The Land.” It lamented changes in the way people perceive land – whereas it was once something we took care of, it’s now just something we own. Which is also a philosophical change that’s evident in my local area (about which I assume both poems were written).

Too much? Just in case, I’ll leave it at that for now.

(The USGS image at the top is the area of which I write, btw.)

great poem

“and that some things are
sweeter when shared.
But these we discard.”

seems especially poignant

That set of lines was important to me, though I wasn’t sure how they’d strike the reader. I’m glad you took notice.