microbe fossils written in stone
on mars from water to now
dust and rust under bleary sky
a little guy wanders through
the ridges escarpments open wounds
the train cuts where commuters pass through

what’s written on million year bones
choppers scattered in gravel
some people dug a hole through the
heart of this mountain and now
they’re gone who knows where who knows who knows
does a sentient roach care or wise bear

we walked down a deserted road
to delaware now a path
through ticks and wildflowers poison
ivy odd invasive grass
to lost cemetery of granite
stones tiny pink flecked with feldspar bore

german or dutch “geb”s and “z”s dates
three hundred mya when
giants strode that road crossed river
in fewer steps than our stones
skipped to the middle and dropped below
the current as a commuter train

pulled current from the lines to whip
through sumac pine maple oak
hemlock dying for wooly worms
fond northeast corridor past
rising tides from too many floating
cresting delaware swelling hudson

horns ablare to warn track workers
wanderers who stepped off track
peeking at the oil depot
sidings throbbing through ridges
out to towers mullein speckled pale
yellow dappled patches of nodding

alfalfa heads goldenrod past
its peak to milkweed cattail
reeds in gutter and staghorn cones
ruddy tart to eyes scruffy
sandy spots chicory dots pieces
of sky grew wires to drink the sun                            

beneath it all a civilization

---

Poet and attorney Dan Bodah is an Adirondacker now based in New York City. Dan has two chapbooks, Inside the Dream Flap (Ghost City) and Eyes & Roots (Many Moons), and poems forthcoming or featured in bramble, Pictura, Paratextos, Another Chicago Magazine, Modern Haiku, Lost and Found Times, Mayfly, Password, and other forums. Dan creates the 5th or 6th best show on WFMU, Vocal Fry, where he airs music featuring wondrous and weird vocal techniques. His legal work centers on police accountability and transparency policies.