how many times will it be recited?
like the pledge of allegiance
indivisible and mumbled

Spring is beautiful

spring is beautiful like a house on fire
heat and color and when it is over you don’t have a home

spring is beautiful like a drunken uninsured Mexican
driving his Impala into a street fair
killing three and injuring nine

spring is beautiful like a dozen crouching marines on a Baghdad rooftop,
showering hot brass onto the street below
foreign policy like mardi gras

spring is three farm boys with black eyes and flat stomachs
white hats like the good guys
yelling what the fuck are you looking at faggot?

Beautiful Spring insists like a clear cut
bulldozers trucking away the topsoil
insists like rainfall, watersheds, erosion

Beautiful Spring insists repeating noise of chainsaws burning oil
insists everything will be taken apart
put back together differently
leaving you with parts left over

parts you will keep in a mason jar
undocumented
marinating in gasoline