“The Big Pushback”

an Erasure poem adapted from an Associated Press article by Ramit Plushnick-Masti

Oil has lived
with cattle
across the Texas landscape
nurtured by
pipelines snaking through
the ground

It has snatched land
most egregious
like an arrogant foreigner,
unworthy

“We’ve fought wars for it.”

condemning land is not
unusual

A 78-year old
great-grandmother
whose late husband worked in oil
spent a night in jail after tres-
passing on her 425-acre farm

cleanup is still incomplete.