Driving across the Sunshine State
you slowly realize the citrus groves
have fallen to the oppressive blight
of growing communities, many gated
that eke their way inland from the coasts.
You still see the large cattle ranches,
cows and bulls grazing
within easy sight of the highway.
You wonder if, in their solitude,
they know their ultimate fate
is the slaughterhouse and if
as they watch the metal containers
speeding by, going nowhere important,
always in a great hurry,
they think their fate might
still be preferable to that of those
prisoners of perpetual transit.