by William Heath
Every car commercial on TV
features its product kicking up dust
as it veers off the paved road
to violate a wilderness area,
causing irreparable harm
to one ecosystem or another.
That’s
what sells: manly men and risk-
taking empowered women
venturing into uncharted territory
to play at being pioneers off
the beaten track, charge up
mountains, from vertiginous peaks
gaze out at the setting sun.
Cars are not for commuting,
picking up groceries, taking kids
to soccer games, driving safely
on highways. It’s the alone
with America fantasy, free
to do what the heart desires,
no restrictions, no consequences.
We can be anything we want to be,
every car a gas-guzzling Hummer,
who cares whose fragile habitat
our radial tires destroy, we are
the world, we are the children.
William Heath has published four poetry books: The Walking Man, Steel Valley Elegy, Going Places, and Alms for Oblivion; three chapbooks: Night Moves in Ohio, Leaving Seville, and Inventing the Americas; three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led (winner of the Hackney Award), Devil Dancer, and Blacksnake's Path; a work of history, William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest (winner of two Spur Awards and the Oliver Hazard Perry Award); and a collection of interviews, Conversations with Robert Stone. He lives in Annapolis. visit: www.williamheathbooks.com