This poem is about the one million square foot Amazon Warehouse erected in the middle of the Blair Village Heritage Conservation District. Citizens of Blair fought long and hard against the building of this distribution center, but they were ultimately squashed by the powers that be.
Four thick walls stretching long in each direction
Ancient willow-river floodplains, colonized by concrete
Hawks and harriers circle aimlessly
Artists with no theatre, hunters with no arena.
Trucks leaking black smoke
Puttering in and out,
Like ants in a colony.
Ants don’t take breaks.
Sealed boxes sitting pretty,
A permanent feature of suburban porch decor
Wrapped neatly in paper ribbons,
Labeled “Prime”.
The ephemeral bounties of our next-day delivery world
Trinkets and tchochkes and toys and
trash
Powered by this grey machine that sits heavy, like a prison
Maybe it’s not that far off from being one.
