It will flame out . . .
            -Gerard Manley Hopkins

Try your best to imagine the worst  
a derelict   boarded-up   burned-out place  
overtaken by weeds & waste   where crumbling concrete
& rusted junk rub desolation into whatever dreams first flowered
before despair toppled & devoured them

Or look across a scarred landscape  
where wildfire   blackened & flattened forests  
leaving a few charred sticks   where faint fence lines
& random bricks   declare what once flourished
in this boom & bust hinterland

Despite the damage we do   through malice
or neglect   the doom & dust passes   the fireweed
blueberries & grasses thrive   the hopeless vacuum fills
with new desire   & amid all that seems irredeemable
innocence comes alive