From the Anthology
Reflections of the Land
Dying industries breed creativity / What else
are we supposed to export / We make our
only models.
You can ride the rust belt / See where the
tracks meet the end / Underneath steel
buckets / Paling in comparison / To the
monuments of capitalism.
They rise like altered beasts / Each addition
a twisted appendage / To its consumptive
mass / Eating the raw and regurgitating the
formed.
On the banks we watch / The bulk carrier
crawl down the river / Heaving itself as it
goes / It is a blue whale chasing the ghost of
its last meal.
Our identities are changing / The factory
floors are turning / Into studio apartments /
Into places where art lives.
When the metal moves out / The mind
moves in / Surviving in a state of harmony /
Dependent on itself / Turning swarf into soil
/ To plant our vision of the future.
Jeffrey Scott Janison is a poet, writer, and editor living in Lakewood, OH. His work tends to focus on exploring the values within society, nature, and love. He writes with a gritty sincerity that reflects his desire to find universal truths, which was most likely influenced by reading Calvin & Hobbes as a child. You can find him at his desk, out in the wild, or stuck in line at Starbucks.
