Ground Floor

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GROUND FLOOR


6th-grade history was peeling back

            the smudged transparencies of mountains

first, then rivers, and finally the black

            dots showing crops of some dark-age civilization

that believed in spirits and grew beans.

            It was green paper, then, flat and unassuming

as homework or our parent’s lives,

            but at least we knew the end of things: 

base layer at last! Then the bell rang

            and we tumbled down the hall to science. 

It was the geology unit, and we learned

            the scientific definitions of various rocks 

and sediments, how earthquakes work, 

            but were given no name for the shudder

that shook some unexplored part of us

            as each slide pulled us deeper, deeper

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