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.