all that remains

Auē
the land
the green land
see, now in parts
it turns to gold
and red and russet

even poetry must change
the hawthorn and the briar
the armies of radiata and the belching of fumes
the awful fruit of knowledge
the brown skinned boy
(whose father makes moko

in the corner of his cell)
he can get online
to the war in seconds flat
outside his window
a flowering cherry
the curling poster above his bed says

I am dying of thirst.