“Some Words for the Week”

As the systems we built

to make our lives easier

to rid ourselves of pain

warp into monsters

and start to eat the world

labeling every object

whether man or tree

or jar of water from a spring

as a product to be sold

and nothing else

I start a revolution

on my one day off

and walk slowly

through the woods

choosing to see what is

not as future planks and plunder

but as one body and breath

one life contained below sky

the wasteless balance

of trees which grow

from ground where

old trees once fell and rotted

and I try to remember

when we were a part

and not apart

of this system

but it seems so far away

and so I watch four deer

cross the meadow

and then I walk home alone

Alexander Shalom Joseph is a writer from Gilpin County. He has two published books and one more forthcoming in the Fall of 2022. For more information and to subscribe to Alexander’s Newsletter go to alexandershalomjoseph.com