A Subsequent Lecture

You’re thinking that the present site favors
a broad expanse of fallow farmland more
than it does a fallen city. Let that be Lesson One.

The city is there, and none too deep. Soon
as we begin, you’ll be surprised how thin
the veil turns out to be. You’ll be surprised

how much survives interment, how little
survives intact. For the most part, our city
comes out in pieces, puzzling as any

deliberately jigsawed for an evening’s
entertainment. And as you might have heard
(if not, here’s Lesson Two) the pleasure lies

in fingering loose ends toward likely shape,
actually making something of these bits
of persons, places, things one finds once one

commences late interrogation
of undervalued, overlooked terrain—
what we in the business like to call the dig.

Reprinted by permission of Scott Cairns and his publishers, Paraclete Press.

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