Eco Gothical

After a certain amount
Of time, all man-made objects
Transform into habitats.

How much time? Well, that varies,
Not only with the local
Climate and environment,

But with people’s opinions
On what’s attractive enough
To seem reclaimed by the world,

Whether corals or forests
Or overgrown brown spaces.
When it haunts you, it’s enough.

The old, gothic romantics
Liked the cultural signals
In the twilit silhouettes

Of disused and abandoned
Ruined medieval castles.
Now it’s more the vines and owls,

The nearly extinct species
Of lichen, mushrooms, and wolves
That matter--not the stones, but

The overgrowth finding homes
In neglected crevices
Of rebar, slag heaps, old docks.

That’s the newly romantic
Nature of recolonized
Post-industrial ruins.