Enough
In my wilderness walks, I often come across piles of trash left by thoughtless humans. Today I stumble upon a tangled mess of bedsprings and old fence wire, fixing it with an icy glare. Who would dare to brag about cluttering the landscape with their castoffs? If I were to speak to the perpetrators, my words would not be polite. This stuff will be here for all to see until rust consumes it. This tangled mess will desecrate the desert for years. Paradoxically, it also gives birth to a poem:
On these rusty springs
silk sheets are superfluous—
driven sand will do.
Who slept in this now worthless bed—a grizzled old rancher and his wife of forty years? Maybe their three young children huddled together for warmth on cold winter nights. I will never know. But the wind and the sun and the stars know. And that is enough.
More Friday’s Fences
More SkyWatch Friday
More Carpe Diem: “Silk”
More Three Word Wednesday: “Brag, Icy, Polite”
Posted on January 24, 2013, in Arizona, Carpe Diem, desert, fence, Friday's Fences, haibun, Sky Watch Friday, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona, Three Word Wednesday. Bookmark the permalink. 30 Comments.
Magical Mystical Teacher 
Very true.
I bet they would do 🙂
Lovely sky-composition!
Great post and interesting photo!
Cool shot!
Interesting shot.
for a while i thought that was some old branches from a vine and the rest was the fencing.
I love your poem and the commentary following it!
K
While i love the art of rust, this dumping on the landscape really bothers me! No respect for the Mother who nurtures us! Silk sheets do not fix the problem!
Ir never ceases to amaze me what you will see along the ways. Back when people used the old wire springs more, probably did not know what a silk sheet was.
The wind will remember who slept here. This rusty old bed and the sand and the sky speak volumes.
Beautiful … I am speechless … nice post.
Wow! could feel your anger expressed in well penned haiku ~ agree ~ Humans can be so self centered and thoughtless sometimes ~
(A Creative Harbor) ^_^
Oh how excellent…thank you 🙂
It’s a truly sad sight! Love the haiku though.
Really enjoyed your approach this time….rawness always “speaks” to me…
Dramatic and artistic shot.
The words following the haiku completes it… perhaps give it more depth. Thank you Teacher for sharing.. you kick ass..
well that’s an odd find but makes in interesting photo op! love all that rust!
Makes for an interesting photo..leaves you wondering about the story behind it!
This is not the way to treat Mother Nature
I guess it will have to be enough When we lived in the country, a man was paid to get rid of trash (for a sum of money). He chose to dump it alongside our half-mile driveway to our home. Luckily, we were able to find receipts inside the bags; we called the sheriff. He tracked the persons down who’d paid for the trasher’s services. He was forced to come and get it and deposit it at the dump.
Wow! I believe this is the first time I’ve ever seen any prose on your page. And it packs the same punches as your haiku do! And there are another dozen haiku buried in your words. Thank you , Teacher.
These words are inadequate for your high praise, but…thank you!
you gave the ugliness such a beautiful treatment! I often speculate about other people’s lives that I see on the street, or the people who threw the old TV and A/C in the wooded area nearby…
We have this same scene here too. Desecrators of the earth! Hope there is some sort of appropriate karma for this dross!
Lovely shot of a terrible crime! I wish I could come and rescue this piece of inland driftwood. It would make a belting piece of art or if you just happened to have a spare mattress…
My 3WW is HERE
An all too familiar scene in the country. I hate it when they dump old car carcases around a farm. So ugly,
I hate it that this has been left behind as well, yet your poem creates such imagery and imaginings that it would be a shame for that not to have existed!
It’s very sad when people dump their stuff where ever it suits them. But these rusty things look great in your photo.