An American Diet – A Poem by Rowe Williams

A car can eat miles of America - 
the amber waves of grain, 
the sea-to-shining-sea - 
petroleum-propelled, voracious.

From the combustion of 
refined hydrocarbons, we obtain the products:
carbon dioxide, water, 
and a new destination. 

As the earth slips backwards 
beneath rubber tires freshly rotated 
only exhaust fumes are left behind. 
A fragrant offering 
of greenhouse gas and mild pollution. 

And America stoically witnesses 
this exchange of chemical and kinetic energies, 
watching silently. 
Thoughtfully. 
Remembering a time before America 
was its name. 
And a time before that.