Webcam the World
by Heather McHugh
Get all of it. Set up the shots
at every angle; run them online
24/7. Get beautiful stuff (like
scenery and greenery and style)
and get the ugliness ( like cruelty
and quackery and rue). There's nothing
unastonishing - but get that too. We have
to save it all, now that we can, and while.
Do close-ups with electron microscopes
and vaster pans with planetcams.
It may be getting close
to our last chance -
how many
millipedes or elephants are left?
How many minutes for mind-blinded men?
Use every lens you can- get Dubliners
in fisticuffs, the last Beijinger with
an abacus, the boy in Addis Ababa who feeds
the starving dog. And don't forget the cows
in neck-irons, when barns begin
to burn. The rollickers at clubs
the frolickers at forage - take it all,
the space you need: it's curved. Let
mileage be footage, let years be light. Get
goggles for the hermitage, and shades for whorage.
Don't be boggled by totality: we're here to save the world without exception. It will serve
as its own storage.
(from 'Upgraded to Serious')
Photo: mine, Bryant Park, NYC Sept 2010
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