The Exchange

This poem was written in response to the Rattle® Poetry Ekphrastic Challenge for August 2025 and was ultimately not selected. You can find more information here.

https://rattle.com/page/ekphrastic/

The Exchange

Cities -

The tendrils of their sprawl ever grasping

Choking on the air as you gasp for breath

Amongst the car fumes and smog

A toxic fog sitting across

Concrete, scorching in the sun

Blacktop burning all that touches it

People retrogressed into ants

Marching between

Meals and work, meals and home

Phone glued to their faces

Their incessant chattering drowned out by

The abrasive sounds on the ears

Tires screeching, horns honking

Carried all the way up to the sky by

Buildings standing jagged like broken glass

Against the horizon

While overhead

Not a single star in sight

-

Instead, give me the

-

Wild -

Full and free, the way things were

And should still be

Crisp air filling your lungs, deep breaths

The weight of all lifted in the exhale

Winds carrying the scent, clean and pure

Of sweet clover and flowers

Swaying in the breeze

Bees buzzing from bud to bud

Verdant moss soft on your feet

Squirrels scampering, while the birds sing

Harmony in the melody of the bubbling brook

People, few and far between

Green trees in their majesty, leaves rustling

Stretch their arms to a sky

Dusted with innumerable stars

As blue and green beams dance

Across the Milky Way

Submitted under MRB