Excavation by Kim Bailey Spradlin

Joseph Brauer CC


Excavation

this sacred place is what the locals call the landfill what i used to call
a dump once covered with banana peels and coffee grounds
                like kelp and shell on the edge of the ocean. i covered it up
sometimes with a shovel               carried across my shoulder desperate
for the refuse to retreat so i could plant a few flowers before
my roots began to show.                                gray and decaying in dying light
lingering in the song of a mockingbird.
she is
                 above me this morning, her tail feathers flapping up
and down, flitting from branch                   to branch while she keeps an eye
out.  i’ve brought my tithes and candles, a plastic shovel
and bucket hoping they will be
                                                                  all i need.    
the harvest moon reaches me here on hands and knees         
appearing to pray before i break
the soil        
                 breach the no trespassing sign, and dig.
                                                                 my back is a table for my sins
                                 once erected to false gods promising
redemption, upholding stones of sorrow                 up around the shoulders hunched over this wounded
earth where
will my flowers grow?
i catch myself holding my breath, why do i do that why do i do                          that?
                                                 my plastic shovel breaks my heart isn’t in it
the soil is too rocky, enraged                      i rake at the earth             it’s been too long too much pain
                                  too much time lost to hope                        i bleed it out i bleed
i know what’s better
it’s time to let it
breathe.

​

Bio: Kim Bailey Spradlin is a 2016 Pushcart Prize Nominee, published poet and writer, and former columnist for Five 2 One Literary Magazine 2016-2017. Kim teaches writing courses online and works as a freelance editor. She lives in Lawrenceburg, TN with her husband, published poet S. Liam Spradlin.

---