ARCHAEOLOGY

Man, born with too many teeth
See the lower ridge, like a skyline crudely drawn
See the ridges, like skylines crudely drawn
that must have seemed inconsequential,
or even magnificent at certain points,
buckling and craning for the stars

He was a child once, who outgrew his shoes
Every two months, every fraction of a measure
measured by a pencil line
Chalky black, or the hard bite of lead into the paint
And then they disappear, or stop

It means he grew up, or they gave up,
or they just died. Almost every story is admissible
in archaeology. "They were a seafaring people,
they fought with bamboo harpoons and with pens
and with opposable thumbs on screens"

"They did not rule well but were well-ruled,
the path prepared, until it disappeared
and they disappeared, and something else arose
to take their place." There are crowds of ghosts
in this house that they built, bones huddled in white.

© Angelo R. Lacuesta 2022