melissaahowells - Prairie Town Progress

sleepy little town
on the edge of the prairie
which once was nearly shoulder high
with buffalo grass
how is it come to pass
you are becoming like all the others

growing pains
and growing plans
moving out and moving on of people
your city planners have decided on
their New Utopia
one in which the players
and the stayers
do not look like you

they've staked their claim
on a corner block
building a luxury high rise
full of shops
who will come
or is it solely for the
new residents
swank enough for crowned presidents
replacing the community farmer's market
and the public minstrel shows
a 17-story towering symbol of the
lifestyles of the always reposed
an oddity of curiosity
rising up like a colossus' thumb

while down the street
the low-rent high rise
will be razed or re-purposed
in order to be reused
to be sanctimoniously given
back to those who are not useless eaters
and have paid their dues

the star-eyed city planners haven't planned
on where to stick these people
relocation isn't in their plans

sleepy city on the prairie
where once buffalo grass grew tall
and gathered around
ambitious and pernicious
to no longer be that little town

even city planners of big and bigger cities
are mandated to include and to see
the littler ants who live there
and to consider their needs
their rights
and their pursuit of liberty

when you pushed out all the Natives
and slaughtered the buffalo
then planted your acreages of
hearty Durham wheat
and watched it multiply and grow
did you think the riches gained here
would make you one day
the elite
a master trampler over the land
and peoples you would defeat

and now you've moved onto
other projects other crowns
to transform the Cinderella-sleepy
little community into your palace
from a simple little border prairie town.

LEGAL COPYRIGHT FOR THIS POEM 6/5/2020 1:17pm PST TIME/DATE STAMPED
AND ALSO FOR THIS WRITER/AUTHOR/POET MELISSA A. HOWELLS
AND ALSO FOR THIS LEGALLY COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED POETRY SITE TITLE
MELOO STRAIGHT FROM HER TILT-A-WORLD