Kevin T. McEneaney

—Poetry & found images

Round Up Catalogue

We have a deep psychological problem with nature.

On the one hand, our exploitation of nature

Has been a remarkably successful lollapalooza,

So successful that we may destroy so much of nature

That civilization as we know it will disappear….

On the other hand, we suffer from ancestral memories

When nature nearly destroyed us as a species

During volcanic Ice Ages, especially

The Toba explosion 76 thousand years ago

Which nearly eliminated sapiens….

We suffer deeply from fear of insects—

ticks, snakes, especially mosquitoes,

various worms, chigggers (which are spiders),

even brown and green wiggling caterpillars—

which we are not able to be rational about….

A certain percentage of people

Can be rational about gardening and nature

Yet such humans are a minority

Because most people prefer

Entertainment to be a communal circus….

When life is lived paycheck to paycheck

As you put out your weekly garbage haul,

There can be little social cohesion

And we can’t be as efficient as ants

Or even bees sipping on nectar….

Many think we have been ejected

From a magic garden as they mow their lawns

Or suffer punishment while raking leaves

Or mending a hole on their house roof

While worshipping Round-Up pesticide….

Some humans think that they are immortal,

That death is something that can aways be postponed

Just as a financial or medical crisis can be postponed

Or that cleaning up a child’s room can be postponed

until it is too late to postpone anything…. 

After the Apocalypse

Extra-cooling-protection Earth-suits

are now on sale at half-price this weekend only

with silk-crotch interiors and Star-Kist oxygen-packs

that last for over twelve hours in 130-degree heat.

Included with the suit are virtual goggle visual tours

of when elephants once walked between trees

and chipmunks frolicked in legendary landscapes

that were once part of our planet’s history

before the invention of AI super-computers.

Current discount sale price: $100 million.

All suits have upgraded male and female connectors

to pleasure those you love in several different ways.

These suits are also reliable for touring on Mars

where the oxygen packs last twice as long.

Addressing Famine

Due to the elimination of most insect life

and the perennial problem of Spring pollination

the government will issue to each landowner

tiny two-winged hybrid-robot pollinators

with a lifetime expectancy of three days.

Landowners will receive 20 pollinators per acre.

These free hybrid creatures should be treated with care

and collected after use for recycling in their shipping pouches

to be returned to the government postage free.

These radio-wave-controllable bio-inspired flying robots,

equipped with coated vertically aligned animal hairs

contain effective ionic pollen gels for plant absorption

and will be used to successfully pollinate a wide array

flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and even certain trees. 

Registered commercial farmers will receive thrice this number

in the hope that they will mitigate the unfortunate famine

that led to the death of millions of citizens last year.