zumpoems

Voortrek

Voortrek

Twisting and deforming
Raging daemonic forces
Scream across the veldt.
              Corkscrew clouds
              Peeling off our thin, Formica-top civilization.

                            No Oz awaits;
                            Dorothy and Toto have headed for the shelters.
                            The only Munchkins, mutants.

Your fault
My fault
No fault.

              We pulled the cork,
              The Jinn gave their notice;
              And History’s in its familiar whirlpool
              With vertigo the fashion of today.

Like hunkered hedgehogs
Curled in spherical,
Lance-backed laagers,

We have one option:

              Shut our eyes
              And wait for the dust to settle.

— Zumwalt (1981)