defining image

Army land they'd called it.
And it was.
Resembling

any piece of land
that armies had fought over.
And earkier:

a bit of common land
like any common land
seen anywhere.

And then the blocks.
Huge, concrete blocks,
as though a child

had smashed
his tower of bricks
in some

great fit of pique.
And those who chanced to see
this lost corner

of the natural world
would turn away,
muttering perhaps

about our modern lack of care.
And then the natural world
was back

and making inroads
once again,
reclaiming what was lost.

And would have gone on
doing so,
but for the car.

Stripped of all its glass.
Doors welded to their frames
The whole car

robbed of anything of use: wheels,
headlights, bonnet...
wild creatures in and out

of its blind headlamp sockets.
Only the shiny engine now
proclaimed its former owner's pride.

It seemed the final conquest!
Symbol of technology's
world dominance; of man's

now fatal love affair
with all machinery
for getting there.

But to that lost
and hopeless corner gave
the one thing that it always lacked:

distinction drawn from colour.
The change was slow,
but in the car's good time

a fierce and vivid red appeared,
smeared itself across
the two-tone greenish black

and rubbish grey
that had merged
well enough with its environment

to keep the wreck low profiled
for a while.
Then finally the rust

spread out
into the wider world
where never was bright hue before.

It was a triumph of a sort:
defining image
of our last (perhaps) obsession.

.......................................................
written in response to Chazinator's prompt for Meeting the Bar : Critique and Craft at http://dversepoets.com/