Neeli Cherkovski
WHAT WE WILL DO


we will consume a six pack and toss the empties
we will greet the rotting myths of human life
we will consider the dead horse tomorrow
we will not give the trees to denuded hillsides
we will lug dirty water into the trough
we will pitch tents in your malls and urinate
we will speak of nature in our subconscious forums
we will think of nature as an abused child
we will stink like nature
we will write poems for the vanishing butterflies
we will suck oil out of our sous
we will made a new flag out of T-shirts
we will promise nothing to the poor
we will dump garbage in the ocean
we will make money on the plague
we will fence-in the last wilderness
we will subdivide our shared dream
we will use disease as a high-powered assault weapon
we will go extinct before we break borders
we will encourage suicide when the coffers run bare
we will ransack your libraries for toilet tissue
we will destroy our enemies on display in museums
it is dawn, a new day, the terrier runs for her ball
bolt your door, shut the window
nature never loved your poems
or been judgmental
nature is as tough as she can he,
we are no match
we are drawn to the awesome ire,
death by air, water, earth, and fire

NEELI CHERKOVSKI is a poet, as well as an editor, memoirist, and biographer. In his early 20s, he and Charles Bukowski launched a short-lived mimeographed literary magazine, Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, most recently Elegy For My Beat Generation; Whitman’s Wild Children, and Ferlinghetti: A Biography–the first published biography of the internationally revered poet and founder of City Lights Books. In 2019, Cherkovski co-edited Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman.

 

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