Garbage by the wayside…

What is wrong with this town
this city, this nation?
Who are the ones
that fling/drop/scatter it there?
Are they self-aware?
Do they have worth?

Ugly artifacts stare up at me
from the gutter.

I read ripped labels,
avoiding shattered glass.
Bags blow past.

Spring doesn’t care,
flowering in and through the trash.

Dead animal carcass, pierced
By brilliant green weeds . . .

The Lord is He is to whom we are accountable
and He reigns in sovereign omnipotence.

 PROMPT #15:

write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a more abstract line
that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does.

Retarded children can be helped, you say
Your words, not mine; and so I must respond.
Such ideas are phrased differently today;
Retarded children can be helped, you say—
To use such terms for cognitive delay, 
Of this, when young, we schoolyard kids were fond.
Retarded children can be helped, you say . . . 
Your words, not mine. To such I must respond.

PROMPT #15:

take a look at @StampsBot, and become inspired
by the wide, wonderful, and sometimes wacky world of postage stamps.

Since the US war-machine needs my taxes to bomb poor people who live far away,
Since few people in my overweight low-info uncivilization know or care about that,
Since plebeian culture has permeated and is now acceptable throughout society,
Since I have no influence or control over these factors to change the outcomes,
Since God is sovereignly ruling and reigning over all aspects of everything,
Since our leaders do not care about the stability or well-being of the masses,
Since polarization intensifies every day as we become a decadent empire,
Since poetry is the epitome of uselessness and art is reduced to commodity,
Since pharmaceutical corporations want to keep people drugged and passive—

Therefore, I will cease to worry about outcomes that are beyond my ability to change,
and I will pay my taxes, for the time being . . .

PROMPT #14 : write a poem of at least ten lines

in which each line begins with the same word.
This technique of beginning multiple lines with the same word or phrase is called anaphora […]