Poetry Magazine
The Archaeologist
In one who doesn’t speak the story petrifies,
gets stumbled over, causes hurt. Then,
says the man who should know about the past, then
is a word you need to learn now. Then
lived lives had has
a name a body, sacrificial hands
so god might help us. Feel with your hands and feet
back along these countless steps and hear
the incessant bloodrush, its dark red
presence. That was what the man insisted,
in so many words, pointing to the ornate
temple corridor, an altar
conjured at its vanishing point.
Source: Poetry (May 2010).
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Living, Time & Brevity
Poetic Terms Free Verse
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