Chris Cocca

The Effects of Ground-Level Ozone on the Ecology of Pennsylvania Highways

We could talk about the road
from Allentown to Bloomsburg,
the nuke plant outside Berwick,
the wind mills in Shamokin.
Or I could say what’s plain,
the pallor of the tree tops
too soon against the still-green valley’s
August.

It’s not latitude or elevation
dressing them for harvest.
The civic body pulsing
the freight metastasizing
the emissions of the tourists
come to find themselves
in nature.
Or I could say what’s plain.
There’s nothing in our handiwork
the dying leaves would envy.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Chris Cocca is a writer from Allentown, PA. His work has been published at Hobart, Brevity, elimae, The Huffington Post and elsewhere. He studied fiction at The New School (MFA, 2011) and is a recipient of the Creager Prize for Creative Writing at Ursinus College.