If They Only Knew... - Prose

If They Only Knew...

Most often

Mr. Fall Thomas chose price over

What was best for

His body

(And the local swallow population)

Bye-buying

Inorganic

Versus

Organic

Vegetables.

This supported the farmer

Who applied the pesticides

Which the bugs ate

A short 100 miles

From Fall’s town.

Coincidentally

If you believe in such nonsense

Fall’s town is actually called

Falls City.

A swallow

Swallowed

Many bugs in the farmer’s

Pesticide-ladened field

And then drove -

Sick, disoriented, drunk -

100 miles

Out of his way.

Coincidentally

If you believe in such nonsense

The swallow ended up

On a telephone wire

Across the street

From Fall’s house.

Fall’s house is tall.

The gutters need fixing

Fall.

Time to move the ladder

Fall.

Fall was almost to the top

When the swallow

Short-circuited

Thinking Fall was a

Huge

Nummy

Bug.

When the swallow hit Fall

12 feet up
Near the gutter

Fall fell.

Bye bye Fall.

(Fall’s wife found

After Fall fell

That Fall actually has

A gutter-mouth)

Now what’s best for Fall’s body

Is laying very still

And swallowing all his vegetables

Through a straw.

Fall’s fractured mandible

And humorous

And radius

And skull

Makes Fall a fraction

Of his former self.

Some rudely call him a vegetable.

Coincidentally

If you believe in such nonsense

Some of the vegetables

That Fall now swallows

Are purchased

From the same farmer

That applied the pesticides

That the drunk and sick swallow swallowed

Before his ill-fated flight
To Falls City

But who 

Is trying an experiment

In organic farming

On a fraction of his land.

The farmer is happy

That the purchaser

For the hospital

Where Fall now lays

Buys some organic food for their patients

Because it’s good

For the hospital’s business.

If they only knew.

--Eric Marley

October 2010