Life and Landscape

Someone is scalping Saskatchewan,
piling up sticky sand to squeeze the oil from it,
and leaving the landscape as if it were
the sandbox of a violent and angry child.

The drag lines are as big as a hotel, scaled to the enormous
horizon of the Province. They are patient, and awful.

In North Dakota, they have an oil shale boom of their own.

In British Colombia, commenting on their neighbors
to the east, a man said, "I will bet that half the population
of Saskatchewan will end up with cancer."

Progress has its price: life and landscape.

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