Karma Bang Bang

[TranquillityBase]

Three years ago, 
the southern bank was a jungle; 
the only time you saw a deer
was when it came down
out of the brush to drink from the river.

Now the cover is gone. 
I watch the disoriented deer run in herds 
back and forth.

Where those deer run
the works of man
has an RV park in its plans.

It’s a flood plain,
so the river will eventually have a say
and a wildlife habitat will become a home
for vacated wreckage.

When I first came here to live, 

the far side of the river, 

a flood plain, 

was a jungle of brush and trees.  

Seeing a deer come down to drink was a rarity, 

the undergrowth kept the deer hidden.



Then came the machines:   

all that's gone now except for the largest trees.  

Deer have nowhere to hide. 



I watch them run in herds over there

from my backyard above the river’s valley.



Now, in spite of Nature’s inevitable retribution,

they want to build an RV park 

with room for 400 where those deer run.



Words that come to mind seem futile

before the power of the Guadalupe,

whose waters will have the final say.