Khaki Contempt
Main Street is sterile,
Opaque ghosts drive
Fuel-efficient Fords.
No one levitates in sherbet,
grape,
or lemon hot air balloons.
Immaculate clipped lawns,
inhospitable to jousts,
host khaki-armored knights.
Docile dogs don’t seek solace from
Meerkat tribal wars,
Pamplona’s running bulls,
or Arabian sand storms.
Exhausted grey dusk slips,
Overworked and overweight,
Swaddled in button-downs.
Lethargic lids close in relief
Dreaming of sunflowers and koalas,
Kumquats and Chinese dragons
Ocelot cubs and plumed charioteers;
Uncorseted festooned fantasies.
Megan Poole