Saudade

Once again, I asked friends on Facebook to suggest some words I could work with. They came up with permaculture, fire, apricate, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, eloquence and saudade. Here's the poem:

Saudade


A parched land,

The high sun,

Strewn rocks,

Lizards apricate.

A thirsty man,

His leathery skin,

His lined face,

His hobbling gait.

He looks around,

This waste of a land,

Once so fertile,

Now dried to sand.

The man sits down,

On a baking boulder,

Closes his eyes,

Sees himself younger.

Strong-willed,

Stronger body,

A man of wisdom,

A man of eloquence.

“Sustainability,

agriculture,

irrigation,

permaculture.”

The unsmiling audience:

A board of bureaucrats.

They grimace and shrug,

“It's utter nonsense!”

“It's atrocious,

like that word,

supercalifragilistic-

expialidocious!”

Campaigns, protests,

lawsuits, petitions,

strikes, prisons,

displaced persons.

The dam's built,

The forest cleared,

Fire and ash,

There's no guilt.

A hot wind,

The man stirs,

His gaze blank,

His saudade.