By Jeffrey Nathan Marks
‘Of Mans First Disobedience’
-John Milton
Charles Goodyear
sowed as many seeds
as John Chapman
but he did it from the kitchen
where his long-suffering
wife savored rubber
in her casserole
a foretaste of twentieth
century life
(vulcanization was, in truth, a cooking accident).
.
Nowadays, Goodyear tires
lie like squirrel bitten
apples along interstate highways
sports stars spend as much
on rims as a five-person family
in the Mahoning Valley
receives in annual support
from the welfare state.
John Chapman refused
to build a campfire
for fear the mosquitoes
who plagued his skin
would fly toward the light
and get eaten by the heat
I think of him when
my wheels (sur)pass
the bodies of tire stamped
creatures on road shoulders
no horse drawn wagon
or pot wearing mensch
traveling by foot would do this.
But at least Goodyear’s intentions
were right:
he gave us Akron.
Jeremy Nathan Marks lives in the Great Lakes Region of Canada. Recent work appears/will appear in Rattle, Terrain.org, Writers Resist, 365 Tomorrows, Topical Poetry, Poetica Review, and Bluepepper. He is the author of the poetry collection, Of Fats Dogs & Amorous Insects(Alien Buddha Press, 2021). Jeremy works for an adult literacy non-profit.
