Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.
Lonely Planet
No road map, no road,
my path disappeared in the understory.
Behind green curtains a cloud forest world.
Kids gathered kindling at nightfall.
Elders roasted sticky rice in bamboo,
chewed pickled tea leaves, tended fires.
Hard hats from the Department
of Accelerated Rural Development
surveyed, blasted, steamrolled
mountain, forest, village.
The road up the mountain
brought down the mountain
crate and barrel.
Dump truck after dump truck
delivered the sky to its knees.
Crows on the horizon
swooped down and speared grubs.
Water buffalo drowned in pools of dust.
David Hellman has had poems published in FIELD, AGNI, Grand Street, Prairie Schooner, Salamander, and elsewhere. He won a 2010 New York Emmy Award for writing, for his work on the drama series “We Are New York,” on NYCTV. (updated 9/2010)