"Seven Days" by Gary Dunford

in the beginning,
man created the mudhole and the marsh
    damming streams for viaducts
    and routing waters for his own benefit
        waters, white as crystal, moving through trenches
        trickling through makeshift reed piping
        splashing clean into clay bowls
        bubbling to do man's bidding
   and it was the morning and the evening of the first day
   and the seagulls were dying


on the second day,
man created the slaughterhouse and the zoo
    and the wild animals of the earth
    which had wandered at will across the planet
       watched man from behind wire mesh
       scruffy lions with sad faces
       and elephants, their bottoms calloused from sitting on cement
   and it was the morning and the evening of the second day
   and the seagulls were dying


on the third day,
the buffalo disappeared. simply disappeared.
    and across the pampas
    safaris, $495 per person, sought out exotic creatures
    to mount in rec rooms or multiply in cages
        and the ice floes ran red
        and the jungle monkeys reeled in terror
    and it was the morning and the evening of the third day
    and the seagulls were dying


on the fourth day,
man created the sewer and sump
    and pumps to pipe sewer to sump and sump to sewer at incredible
    cost
        to nose and pocket
    and the pumps pumped
    and the sumps drained
    and the sewers flowed
    into creeks and lakes
    and every drop of sewage makes
    an ocean spreading across the world
    the universal apocalypse
and it was the morning and the evening of the fourth day
and the seagulls were dying


on the fifth day,
man crated and canned atomic wastes
and made up the word megaton
    packing the wastes in rusty old drums and concrete caissons
    cramming biological uglies into old trains
        that run on undetermined schedules
        acorss the landscape
and somewhere, sunken tanks of arsenic
are cloaked in barnacles
and rust slowly in salt water
and now and then, on october afternoons
underground explosions occur
and smiling spokesman describe them as necessary and safe
while desert floors collapse
and islands tremble
and the smiling spokesman says
    the san andreas fault
        remains faultless
and it is the morning and the evening of the fifth day
and the seagulls are dying


on the sixth day,
man created the additive
    which differed in name, but never in purpose
    and was gleefully installed in cereals and fertilizers
        soft drinks and cookies
        field and bug sprays
        creams and cosmetics
    it was added to everything man ate or drank
        was added to smokestacks
        and sewage
        and lakes
        and eventually,
        even the additives had additives
     and counter-antidotes to combat the counter-pollutants
     and even the experts gave up explaining
        exactly what the additives were to accomplish
     and it was the morning and the evening of the sixth day
     and the seagulls were dying


on the seventh day,
there was quiet over all the earth
   except for the lapping of waves
   and the bubbling of storm drains
       and the seagulls were dying
       and the plankton
       and the oceans
       and the atmosphere
       and the trees were dying
and man
    rested