May 142011
by Allan Johnston
Dressed in bright colors to ward off death
the roadway repair men arrive in the morning
to tear up the road.
They set out their pink cones
and one hammer-jacks through the asphalt with his
pneumatic drill until the lip
of the tractor blade can push in and under
and lift up the pavement as if it were orange peel.
This shows the grid, the white roadway gut
the tractor scrapes along, exposes,
damages, so sewer tops jut
like the petrified trunks of trees in the desert,
so that work is no longer in order
and the road crew packs up and goes home.