Charles Hood, Aqueduct
Wild untamed country
he felt his life driving
so forward and downward
like shovelblades into
uncut rows of earth.
rebounding at roots
and pushing the suck
of the water as air falls
through sods and the cling
of the claysoak. much as a man
might once have imagined
the settle of land
or the hacking of world
into roadmap. and his life
out before him
was just such a wild
untamed country, such as
was once uncharted
america. his life
well behind him
all tilled, taken care of –
a patching of fields.
all roads paved and dull
and no danger;
and then massachusetts
and not california.
and then california
and not perhaps parts
of alaska.
___________________
DS Maolalai