by Annette Gagliardi
my father dug into the Earth in the Black Hills
Gold Mine - two stories underground -
his way lit only by the light on his helmet
with pick ax and shovel he dug -
pressing his muscles into
each striation of the ground
using the bundles of fibrous tissue on his back and legs
that became layered like the colored ribbons on an agate
becoming what he dug, what he hollowed out
the smooth, polished stone in shades of brown
with mahogany, umber, and sienna ribbons
following each other around the outside
and even though we cannot see them,
they run through the center as well.
what he dug became a cavern that grew
over time - with each stroke
of the ax as it cleaved the rock
smooth, yet hard - hard as granite –
hard as the dark deep, down in the mine
hard as the days and nights he excavated the Earth
digging and cutting the bedrock,
creating ridges and valleys
inside the world of stone
hard as the life
inside our mother planet
under her crusted mantle
with her breathing herself
onto him and sighing
as he tore away her flesh
hard as it is to suffer patiently
while something or someone
digs you hollow
38 lines
Free Verse
Hard as Stone Published in Minnesota Voices booklet, summer 2020, Wadena MN, 603wchs@arvig.net
-Published in Down in the Dirt Magazine, via Scars Publications on October 2018.
At: http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers
-Published in Parallel Universe, Down in the Dirt March/April 2019, Vol 163, Scars Publications.
-Published in Pasque Petals, The Magazine of the South Dakota State Poetry Society, April 2018.
-Printed in ERR Artist Collective, ERR-otta Zine, March 14, 2018.
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