Meals of Ashes

 

How many times

Have I unintentionally

Poisoned myself

 

A question that goes

Along with how many

Pounds of earth will

I have eaten in my

Lifetime

 

Carbon on the grill,

Dust of dirt over

Fruit purchased in the

Wild or in the store,

 

Condensation nuclei

I breathe or drink

In, after the raindrops

And substance

For snow ice cream

Is formed

 

The world’s morsels

That I have consumed

Because I thought of

Other things,

 

Because the present

Need was urgent

(That is, exigent):

 

You know, I’d gulp

The same in order to

Pay attention to the

Denizens and not so

Much malleant detritus

Of my dusty planet