
Five years
Four contractors
All backed out.
No one wanted to
replace old
wood growing
mushrooms
in the dark
under a crumbling
foundation.
Above, birch floors
sagged and groaned
sudden cracks split the night
She knew.
Her belly roiled,
long before
the bedroom floor
collapsed. Oh,
contractors quoted
her huge sums
of money to mow down
her trees, her flowers
wreck her land
with big machines
before each backed out.
An old woman
doesn’t have much
to offer those
who
would still bleed
her dry in a heartbeat
if they didn’t have
mansions
to build…
One even dug
a mighty hole
before dismissal,
left her with a chasm
15 feet deep
looming beneath her
bedroom window.
When he stepped in
she couldn’t believe it.
Two would do the work of
ten in the spring.
by hand – men willing
to sweat in hard labor
– impossible to find
in this world of
mindless machines.
Yet he came.
When He told me
he would work alone,
the lion
had
other commitments,
my gut froze.
“Oh no” I wailed
“You cannot do this alone…”
Despair choked back
unshed grief…
He comes a few
Days a week – two
is plenty to be bent double
in a four foot crawl space
like an inchworm
on the move
heaving mold ridden
rotting timbers.
He comes.
That is the miracle.
Who knows how
long it will take…
But I know that
that he will finish
the job.
His word is
Gold like a sun
without hubris
or price.
Thanks to him
I am being given
A chance
to heal
a broken
Body
whose rotting belly
was hidden,
held captive Underground.
They’re rare as hen’s teeth these days, but they’re out there. 🙂
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Oh, you ae so right – rare indeed. thanks for commenting!
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