I entered this poem and two others in the 2008 SFPA Poetry Contest. “Future Freedom” is a “Judge’s Pick” and will appear in the poetry contest chapbook published in June 2009.  I also won a nice prize: Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings of Suzanne Vega by Suzanne Vega.

“Future Freedom”

They came for them, today–
the last of them,
the last trees in our town.

Energy, they said–
fuel to run these trucks
carrying the soldiers
that keep us safe.

The ones who strip away
the last trees, the last grass–
the last remaining biomass
to serve the dwindling few
and those they still command.

Keeping the country safe,
just like they promised,
they’ll come for us, next,
the not-quite-dead, because
there’ll be no fuel or food
for another trip to nowhere.

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Copyright © 2008-08-31, by Liz Bennefeld.