JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

On screen

a Japanese scientist

beautiful in humbleness

is demonstrating his invention

 

An appliance into which

he throws plastic garbage

bags, bottles, packaging

he presses a button

and after a few minutes

a stream of converted oil

petroleum or kerosene

flows from a pipe into a beaker

 

Now he’s showing his machine

small enough for any kitchen table

to children in other countries

explaining how it may be used

to clean the world

recycling heaps of clutter

back to their original constituents

 

And I wonder

if in some moment

of brilliant ingenuity

someone could possibly

create a similar device

which might recycle

metropolitan sprawl

poverty, overpopulation

child abuse, drug dealing

back into two naked

lovers reclining under

apple trees

in a sun filled garden