Guest Blogger, Author, Artist, Elder...and Adopted Brother, Manny Moreno, Shares His Poetic Words of Change in America!

 On... Dreading the changes happening in the San Joaquin Valley of California

Grandpa Hawk perched in a tree

looked down at me on a stump

gazing at fields being primed

for the advancement of the times

and asked unassumingly:

What is in your heart?

And so I began to speak;

I dread this alien ratrace

mirrored in congested big city phlegm

manifest-destiny all over again

mixing into this country world

like oil with water

strangers with shark-like expressions

convoluting the landscape

in Hummers Volvos SUVs

along with their collective wannabes

I dread this transformation

 of new homes and buildings

expanding like popcorn

 no locals can afford

I dread this attack of the new-age Borg;

Resistance Is Futile-You Must Assimilate

I dread these pimps of poorly planned progress

for pathetic self-profit

I dread taking scenic drives in the country

thundering with traffic thick as bees on honey

being forced to find places away from

familiar places where technology

yet has targeted its thoughtless tentacles

and capitalist clowns have yet proclaimed

their arrogant game of eminent domain

places where open spaces still be free of idiot boxes

blasting gangster obscenities

where no yuppies have fenced off areas once always open and free

of eyes of steel and robotic gates and fortresses of concrete

high as prison walls

and grandpa Hawk looked at me 

with eyes of wisdom and said;

listen,

listen to us

winged ones

four leggeds

insects

trees

rivers

as we sing our death

songs,

then grandpa Hawk flew

 off into the blue,

and I rose from the stump

for a bulldozer was coming

and I could no longer stay.

See Review of Scared

I lived in my present home, surrounded by 13 acres of trees, and no other home in view, when I first started talking to Manny and reading his words... It has been my privilege to learn more about him each time we connect, mostly on Facebook... Now, as I reread this poem which speaks of change in the area where he lives, I cannot but help to wish that Manny could live in my area of the world, where deer roam into my yard, 'possum and 'coon come to eat along with my cats... and in the distance, sounds of farm animals are heard from the home place of a new, nearby neighbor who I have not even met... Still, we know we are nearby, and that we live in a country where quiet is supreme most of the time, until the winds come, the rain beats on our roofs... Nature surrounds each of the homes in the area--and we enjoy our beloved land. 

Manny, I know, has settled in a lone place, where nobody surrounds him as well... Two loners, perhaps, that still enjoy touching base from time to time over a computer that brings us closer than we could ever have been in life... 

Manny, it is good to have you share your words, once again, here at Book Readers Heaven! But, I had to laugh as I discovered still another reason we are connected. My brother, you, too, have met the Borg... and decided, we were not to be assimilated! LOL We are as free as we can be here in America! May we continue living in this democracy, free to be all that we can be... Let us Pray to God that we can see a far future of that freedom which is now threatened by those who want power over others... And allow it to continue until we meet our grandfathers/mothers...