Green Peas at Stake

The People before Us (Dew Drop 20)

The People before Us

In the summer of
the World's Fair, 1939,
when the "compass rose
pointing in all directions,"
the people before us
danced the rumba,
extending the conga line
from the docks to
Manhattan for the unknown
to be discovered; the sea
of people, in wide parades,
reached the pavilions
that promised world peace
for the umpteenth time,
like the end of a long,
miserable drought.

Useless!
Now, the rain
spits down our shame,
tasting of ashes.
The splitting ice,
the ebbing earth
the missing sky
bind us to guilt
of shortened time.
This vile display
from the brink of yesterday,
can it hit upon a spiral
to uncoil again from
the "Futurama Ride"?