today, it's purple buds and emerald sloughs,
a riparian zone that smells like health.
tomorrow, the desert hastens to arrive
pushing forward with abandon,
yet still pushed
to the back of regional minds.
the sickened sluice of commerce: gas flares
from corroded vases, petrochemical runoff
glistening neighborhood faces.
the south platte river is like the bottom
of a deep fryer, never cleaned:
crusted gunk, petrified funk.
we are all downwind
from a rotting juniper's trunk, as an avid cyclist
whizzes by these
dystopic dioramas
without even holding his breath.
they say the colorado river will become amerika's yangtze,
the hydration requirements of 30 million careless heathens
distilled from a gasping tap,
as whole cities
are swallowed whole
by the python of disbelief.
when the western rivers say goodbye, and wheeze
for water to breathe, and suffocate instead
on a last meal
of rock, sand, silt
-all hail the vaporless flow.
