Tuesday, March 18, 2014

When We Are Gone


When We Are Gone


by

Kenny A. Chaffin

All Rights Reserved © 2014 Kenny A. Chaffin
(from Prosthetic Amalgams)


           
            It starts with ants excavating the driveway, it will continue for years. They will bring their detritus up through the cracks. The winter snows will melt and seep into those cracks, freeze and force them open further. Water will gather, flow, settle, lift and shift sidewalk slabs. Tree roots will drill into foundations, vines into mortar and brick, climbing and covering. Wind-loosened shingles will lift and fall, lift and fall, ‘til they fall away for good. The sun will bake the asphalt shingles, the ice and rain will do their work, abrading and washing grit into the rain gutters and down onto that driveway.
            Manicured lawns will fade as native plants reclaim their territory. Manicured shrubberies will explode, twist and warp into their own shapes, their own selves. Flickers who have always drummed upon flues in search of mates will continue drumming on the rusting flues until those flues fall and can no longer be drummed upon. Woodpeckers will open the way; honeybees will follow taking purchase within walls protected from the elements. Rabbits and deer will return sheltering where we once were. In almost no time at all, life will return to normal.







About the Author

Kenny A. Chaffin writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction and has published poems and fiction in Vision Magazine, The Bay Review, Caney River Reader, WritersHood, Star*Line, MiPo, Melange and Ad Astra and has published nonfiction in The Writer, The Electron, Writers Journal and Today’s Family. He grew up in southern Oklahoma and now lives in Denver, CO where he works hard to make enough of a living to support two cats, numerous wild birds and a bevy of squirrels. His poetry collections No Longer Dressed in Black and The Poet of Utah Park  are available as ebooks at Amazon.com as well as How do we Know? a collection of science articles and essays. These and more are available at his Amazon.com author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B007S3SMY8