Giants in Liverpool
jet streams lattice the sky
mistaken as departing planes
until the earth rumbles unanchored
(unbalanced) rupturing the day to day
what hand so mighty can control
the world, scribe signatures in skies
white ink against blue parchment
there are contrails over Liverpool
and the giants are coming home
they drop, spin, roll from cumulonimbus
billowing cloaks, thunderous tremors
as we dodge knives and forks
plunging from above
skewering cars and lorries
an occasional dog
these fey titans surge the streets
push through traffic, crowds
inexorable waves in waterways
they weigh the world in their favor
claim all with far reaching gaze
mapping new horizons
giants among men mean nothing
as they scream impotent threats
squashed under unheeding heels
smears that leave a dark contrail
upon crushed autumn leaves
we cower like beetles
the giants reclaim the bellicose lands
overarching strides that never retreat
control by sheer size the conglomerates
these goliaths go global taking empires
they can regulate, the land is ripe to farm
internet startups, their much larger web
we honk on the outskirts afraid
to tremble the firmament (again?)
this is no superstitious time
yet fists on chests reverberate
we cry out, fear divine punishment
when we hear their stentorian voices
we hide among beanstalks
no Jack or golden eggs will save the day
deliverance will not come
as a vibration of archangels
God’s searing bolt
or a thousand thousand locusts
we made our mark
but we will fade away
like all telltale signs of the apocalypse
an ink stain, a blight
like insects in the crops
Colleen Anderson lives in Vancouver, BC and has been nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prize and 2021 Aurora Award for poetry. She is a BC Arts Council and Canada Council grant recipient. Her writing has been published in four countries and such venues as Polu Texni, Cascadian Subduction Zone, HWA Poetry Showcase and American Diversity Report. Her short fiction collection A Body of Work is available online and her poetry collection, I Dreamed a World, is forthcoming from LVP Publications. www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com