Always grateful to the editors at The Shore for seeing something special in this. They published it and nominated it for the Pushcart Prize a few years back.
The Effects of Ground-Level Ozone on the Ecology of Pennsylvania Highways
We could talk about the road
from Allentown to Bloomsburg,
the nuke plant outside Berwick,
the wind mills in Shamokin.
Or I could say what’s plain,
the pallor of the tree tops
too soon against the still-green valley’s
August.
It’s not latitude or elevation
dressing them for harvest.
The civic body pulsing
the freight metastasizing
the emissions of the tourists
come to find themselves
in nature.
Or I could say what’s plain.
There’s nothing in our handiwork
the dying leaves would envy.
Chris Cocca 