Just took a four mile walk through the streets of Carbondale, Illinois: endless rivers of lawns, sharp angular edges, concrete embankments, immovable concrete treadmills, petunias, arbor vitae, petroleum powered boxes on petroleum synthesized rubber rounds spinning heavily on petroleum synthesized pathways, raccoons peering out from storm drains: whisk the water away, away, away! It occurred to me: what was once tallgrass prairie on the corn and soy fields of Central Illinois is meted out in square mile impoundments, divided by blacktop. Walk around a cornfield block: four miles. Four mile walk this morning equals four mile cornfield. Monocrop equals monocrop. All diversity minus all diversity. Wal Mart here. Wal Mart there. Wal Mart everywhere. Concrete petunias. Rubber tire taxi, double seated hack. Took Dehlia to the graveyard, Good Lord, and they failed to bring her back. She’s all I’ve got and she’s gone…