We are the tan, bark!

• Ash Frank
• Short Story
• 2005

Tanbark
We are the spew
And the sewerage. Abrasion
For the industrial stomach,
That converts cuisine into
Roughage and colour into
Tan. That is what we are.

Our slender forms, once,
Together, lifted mountains and
Narrowed tracks into
Valleys.
Now it is the pits and flowerpots
We are told to fill.

Told
With spades, pointing
To granny’s gardens, to
Moisten and care.

Our heaps, stacked high
And shallow, must
Reach down for juices
Now void in our veins.
It is now that we must
Slacken and bend?
Sponge-up and follow the
Barrows to the trenches, in
Knowledgeable hands with
Likewise intentions?

Now, the sand is on paper
And the soil in packets.
Boundaries are placed
And duties exacted.
With bracken disparity we sit
And mull over it all