Artifacts

Kicking a bottle cap

accidentally

an echo in the alley an aural portal

to a dusty and hot place

somewhere in antiquity, somewhere desert

where women’s bowls, cracked,

left deeply embedded beneath

many feet walking miles and miles

to and fro, like we do now, for nothing

than a few coins, a few grains, some fish

Men molded dream women

even then, now we find them buried

missing a limb or a digit, like now,

we’re all missing something

though we think it’s heavy and important -like time-

but how much time does it take to laugh

or sniffle at a flower?

Horace would laugh at our tweets,

earnest influencers’ odes to prosceniums

full of silicone and chrome

we compare mud and silver

and kick a pebble down the dusty road

like we do, like we did, like we will.

…

(City Poems prompt, @UutPoetry. “Artifacts” published on Substack. Check out the relaunch of UutPoetry at Substack, with poetry, process, and prompts to peruse.)