Coal Dust Bowl

In places where the landscape
bears traces of upheaval rather
than renewal the house siding
is laced with coal dust
the overgrowth retains texture
of perpetual winter although
the sun continues its disintegration
on this long late spring day
the forecast didn’t predict this
warmth but it increases
as the hours wear on
looking for something to
photosynthesize at some point
if you keep digging you get to
the center of the earth
and come out the other side
where the sun isn’t shining
at least not at this moment
but there are no privileged
frames of reference there’s just
the sense that this way of life
is unsustainable that soon
there will be no earth left
to dig up the seeds will scatter
on fallow ground which is
another way of saying
that nothing will grow
here ever again anymore
until the light finds home