Subhuman Sprawl

Poems by Sierra Ventura

"they grow first gradually, but soon with explosive force attracting stores, creating
jobs and struggling to keep pace with the need for more schools, more roads, more
everything. And eventually, when no more land is available and home prices have
skyrocketed, the whole cycle starts again, another 15 minutes down the turnpike."
Rick Lyman, New York Times

traffic
it transcends a midlevel sedan
baby faced pixels in your dropbox
scarred and knotted up in rope
a trail of tricycles and trust
dead duplicates, faux nostalgia, rust
freedom awaits those who worry
pearly gates oxidized and blurry
a soul for everyone who pays the toll
tail pipes exhaling haze for days
small fee to exhaust the holy name
take off your seatbelt and play the game

hollowed ground

new coat of paint

returning to
an open wound
the emptiness
the pulled apart
reminders of broken glass
shattered mirrors
filled with hair
creeping down
quiet missteps
dragging forward
mortal mangled
maternal mastery
neat and barren
cant remember
an open wound

spring hemorrhagic fever

half hearted palm
reading dont care if I get
it right or wrong
fell in the ocean
caught a wave to the pines
low gas mileage
they hung in the tree
to dry out and scare kids
their blood was warm
classist occultist
spring hemorrhagic fever
no invite for me
live in garbage bag
cant hang in the same place
words escape
tiny bony bruise
vanilla tinged haze
dime bags only
dollar store drop out
why pay rent who cares ha ha
for pennies a day
future too clear
need a ride to the drugs store
the sun is still up

lost?

by the freeway exit

wild suburban tick
kids bleed in the yard
works @ general electric
life cant get very hard
a shrink wrapped skeptic
drowning in saccharine lard
keep it going get all sick
your soul becomes too scarred
daisy sticking up like a candle wick
it will be feathered and tarred

sometimes i feel like a machine

face on the screen door

tense heart
pulling of the strings
to a place unseen
that longing sense
has been spent
wishing the days
were real
a home with no soul
vibrating alone
emptiness surreal yet
familiar to a place
Ive never known

ode 2 nostalgia
pop this blister
send me to sleep
poor nighttime sister
she cant, not a peep
a mouthful of dirt
hung in the elm
her body so hurt
not of this realm
sweetness sold
guilt by the pound
left her eyes cold
buried in the ground

branch death

quick leave the house

door locked hard
feet frozen cold
strangled stronghold
in a sweater
quiet like a mouse
torrential rain seethe
lying dead in the yard
maybe if i breathe
ill get better

round up
in the realm of the
elm i found pesticides
lilac committed suicide
lied in the grass while
spewing out sass the
sad sun the bitter moon
felt so nice, lovely in june

columbia
palo verde
five canyons
pine creek
summer sprawl
the ridge
grassy knoll
stonebrae
deliverance
redwood heights
desert acres
tartarus

rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and
rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and
rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and
rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and
rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and
rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and

superfund
I am your childhood home
one freeway exit
down from the Costco
where your dad goes
and gives his penis a show
I am your exurban abode
replicant architecture
unholy matrimony
craftsmashshipwreck
lasts longer, take picture
I am your uncanny valley
Live in doe-eyed garages
smells like poison marshes
the river shallow turned bad
dad drunk died I got sad

bench ad
the pleasures of supply & demand
grew an elm tree by accident
musician shaking without a band
shot the school board president
her mouth full of litter and sand
to every business park resident
the garage mahal costs a grand
desert daisies chew on trident
the seas of refuse dying to expand
exiled serfs safe in a car dent
walking around bomb in hand
this lot is for sale this is my land

there will be another me

white blight
through the vicious valley
the sprawling sidewalks
the jungle of freeway exits
where the breath of gods is fresh with CO-who cares
lies
a mortgage that hit the wallet so hard
they hopped in a sedan
and left the kids in the yard
the bank bombed the lawn
particleboard patriots
peddling patriarchal passes
at balding boys and their Soviet sweethearts
hoping to cash out
of the fawned hills
and bandited trash eaters
the doors they left open
the floors they left raised
the house itself seethes
how much do I have to pay you
to go the fuck away