LIFE IN THE SILICON WOODS

I have a good cabin:
I built it not with hammer and nails
but by filling it with books and blankets,
posters, plates and silver-ware,
by fending off rival hominids
by wielding the primitive spear
known as money

Situated in a cheap apartment complex
in a poor region of an anarchic U.S. city,
it is surrounded by wild animals:
hominids that fist-fight
and consider Fox News scholarship
and it is compared to their rap, X games,
religious N.B.A. and NFL games, and phony wrestling

Sometimes I do wander to the nearby hills
and consort with more civilized creatures
like birds, deer, and coyotes

But their easy grace
wears off on me only a bit:
under such circumstances,
year by year
I have become rather "wild" myself
in silicon and actual ways

I largely keep to myself
and go off to artistic fields to graze:
I eat songs, and steaks
show off my literary antlers
in mating season
and know how to chase off
an intruding rival male,
or give a dangerous one his turf

My cabin is my refuge:
few are invited in
and almost none allowed to stay long;
When the T.V. becomes unwelcome
which is more often than not,
I chase it off with a click

I listen to and write poems,
virtually roam through all continents,
smoke the occasional cigarette:
I may share one(virtual or real)
and brief conversation
with a friend,
but I'll NOT go fishing

I have fish and tartar sauce,
bread, olive-oil, and even New Testaments:
I've swum with shining dolphins
and even singing mermaids

I do not know what I need,
but I think
I'll find it alone in this cabin