there is power in granite
not of your choice,
earth-deposits of a history of money.

so today you are digging
out of the pavement a strength
you already possess,
a faith in stone.

i wonder what would happen
if you find a fish gasping in the dust,
or if a hundred-year-old turtle crawls out
to proclaim the good news.

i am waiting for a minotaur
to emerge to start a fresh flood.

we imagine ourselves to be trees
in the thick sulphur of this city
where no one needs to speak.

maybe you’re waiting to tell a story
of an underground government
of broken bodies.

who are our leaders,
that they would stay quiet?

these are eruptions
too deep in the ground,
metaphors of stone,
groundwork of hands.

 

 

Editors' note:
"Groundwork" was first published in
Dreaming Cities (Math Paper Press, 2016).