The Underground Observatory
by Jane McKie
The Underground Observatory - Jane McKie
The Underground Observatory
I watch things flourish:
pale rhizomes and spores,
white vermicelli nematodes,
excreta, burgundy with berries.
There is so much succulence,
rooty treasure-troves big
as dragon bones, half a boot,
bread that is no longer bread,
cobwebbed apples, rusted lids.
At the ragged feet of walls
groundwater collects
in pockets between soil,
black as chewed tobacco.
I want to catch them all,
these gripes and shifts:
stone without the power
to rise and stone that heaves
haphazardly, the slow mill
of landfill, the threadbare
weave of my once-best suit.
from Kitsune (Cinnamon Press, 2015), © Jane McKie 2015, used by permission of the author