Thursday, April 26, 2007

The Spring

Gary Synder (b. 1930)

Beating asphalt into highway potholes
     pickup truck we'd loaded
road repair stock shed & yard
a day so hot the asphalt went in soft.
     pipe and steel plate tamper
took turns at by hand
then drive the truck rear wheel
a few times back and forth across the fill--
finish it off with bitchmo around the edge.

the foreman said let's get a drink
& drove through the woods and flower fields
     shovels clattering in back
into a black grove by a cliff
     a rocked in pool
     feeding a fern ravine
          tin can to drink
numbing the hand and cramping in the gut
surging through the fingers from below
     & dark here—
let's get back to the truck
get back on the job.






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