The real market

I woke up crying

as the machine pulled

out the life next door

unsatisfied were the owners

of number seven’s beach shack

that sat unobtrusively

they took the trees

with such ease,

these natives gave

so much shelter

now are exchanged

for a double block

of buildings that

will emit spoil

the soil is already

in protest as it

is picked up by

a howling wind

that has come

to take it away

this slope is slippery

as it falls away

without roots 

to keep it grounded

the community falls away

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The real market considers the violence hidden within ordinary development — revealing how profit, extraction and disregard for place can erode not only the natural environment, but the deeper bonds that hold a community together.