A patient fire

Powdered lands of poisoned grief

a stunted flower blooms at night

the vain attempt to tame the grass

for concrete-plastered roads of guilt

The leaves are clipped

for feathered roads

a bootless march

across the swamp

Another stone is in the way

as stubborn as the trees

A patient fire has cleared the tracks

a train is passing, bullet-like

the piercer of polluted mist

a heavy cloud shall rain, in time

And settle in the dirty ash

where dust shall cough from mouths of caves

Never to return to stone

Until the river cleans this earth