Nature is so quick to take back
what our attention
abandons
its forces
pawing
at the heels
of civilization
tailgating man-made things
waiting for us to stumble
to let go
to forget
to leave
there are luxury mansions
in Cambodia
where goats
now pasture
the ghosts of the Coliseum
now share their moonlight
creeping with the cats
in the steps
up to the trailer
where I lived
when I was eight years old
there is now a green stalk of something
that broke through
the manufactured stair
and the stem
of the 7
marking no. 7K
that was eroded
eaten by hungry rain
and ravenous time
still occupying
the same position
but left
uncared for
by the place’s
successive guardians
time is numbers
and their accumulation
problems
we riddle out
we make them into phrases
to work through
on the chalkboards
of conversation
we taste hypothesis
we spit it out
we look back
across the blacktop
of our history
all these riddles
problems of time
and accumulation
of outliers
and unconsidered
aspects
in every equation
I came here
with so many of them
there are pieces
that will maybe always be
left unsolved
I am free
and you are free
and it is only in putting these things
into relation
that they become
something other
than just
what they are.