I am the food

by Steven De Frates

I am the food
of stoplights, power brakes, safety
glass, of the airbag, asphalt and concrete,
of momentum and collision.
                                               I am the food
of the law, rules, manners, civilization,
of compassion, kindness, open doors,
of reason, imagination,
                                      food of internet
fantasy, television, movies, computer games,
laptops, cell phones, satellites, drive-time radio
of caution and curiosity.
                                        I am devoured
by chaos, accident, chance and opportunity,
the sudden left turn and the sneaky swift kick
of random genetics,
                                 the food of changing luck,
tender enough to eat with a fork, slippery noodle
of destiny, divinity and deviltry, sacred horniness,
visions, nightmares, dreams
                                              and sleeplessness.
I am marinated with money and poverty,
war and peace and the news, by space
stations, shuttles and moon walks,
                                                        the living food
of tornadoes, lightning, hurricanes, volcanoes,
earthquakes, forest fires and flash floods,
the dessert of planetary evolution.
                                                       Wrinkled by age
and continuous birth, I am the last of my kind
and the first to go, the meat in the middle
of heaven and earth.
                                  I live to be eaten
by bacteria, bears, viruses and mosquitoes,
by cancers, sunspots and sharks, heart attacks,
baseballs and falling stars.
                                           I taste of gravity,
polarity, paradox, wild ambition, salty submission,
fight and fear, heroic roast and cowardly stew,
lion and lamb chop, hand and fist,
                                                       Superman
having a bad day, lost and found, here then gone,
panicked passenger, damned navigator, drunken driver
and road kill,
                      raw and ready for the next bite of mortality.