POPULATION ZERO
Cockroaches ignored the winter dawn
lengthening past spring and into summer.
They hid and scarcely saw that we were gone,
but died less frequently from nerve poison
and ruby dust, more often in nature.
Cockroaches ignored the winter dawn
that cooled the buildings. Where spiders spun
their icy webs in icier zephyrs,
they starved and didn’t know that we were gone.
Sidewalks heaved, sewers split, bridges came down,
freezing and thawing in long November.
The hard structure of their world in winter dawn
disintegrated, and goose grass, autumn
olive trees, birch, bear, wolf took over
everywhere. The cockroaches were soon gone.
We are like cockroaches of autumn
burrowing more deeply and unaware
in heated cities of the cold dawn
when all we’ve had will be gone.
