by J. R. Solonche
The CEO of Interface,
the world’s biggest maker
of commercial carpet,
has had an epiphany, “a spear
thrust into my chest,” as he
was reading E. O. Wilson
on the extinction of species,
who called it, “the death
of birth,” and now what?
Now this – pull out that spear
which has done its work,
and thrust that spear into
the chest of the next CEO,
and thrust it into the chest
of the CEO after that, and
then into the chest of the next
one and the next one, and
then what? Then this – keep
thrusting that spear, keep
thrusting and thrusting
that epiphanal spear. Name
it “The Death of Birth.”
J.R. Solonche is co-author (with wife Joan Siegel) of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). His poems have appeared in many magazines, journals, and anthologies since the 1970s. He teaches at SUNY Orange in Middletown, New York.
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