Field of Tongues

At the demolition site
a building’s innermost secrets
had been layed open.

Each brick was a kind of time capsule.
Instead of newspaper clippings and old photographs
they preserved glazed fingerprints,
trace elements of salt and sweat.
The bricklayers’ hands, like seismographic needles
had trowelled wandering lines in rough cement.

And now the sun plunged beyond tall cranes
silhouetting the building’s iron skeleton.
Silent fire flooded a field of tongues,
rising on a wave of wind.
And a sparrow, like a skittering top
traced time’s parabola
between the glowing, washed-up coals.

Poem taken from the chap book Strange Attractors. First edition July 1993. 200 issues. Co-producer: Mark Stueve of Old Erie Street Bookstore Cleveland, Ohio. Front cover art by Harland Ristau. Lettering by Big Web. Back cover art by Dan Nielsen. Text artwork by t.l. & Carolyn Kryss & Hilary Krzywkowsk. Co-edited by Mark Weber & Mark Stueve. Photo of t.l.kryss by mark weber 18may89. (c)1993 by Zerx Press & t.l. kryss, 5016 Inspiration Dr, SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108