#187 Near El Rito by Phyllis Wax

Our guide remembers when he was a boy
watching his father bulldoze dirt

to bury the remains
of his ancestors’ pueblo

to preserve what the state
couldn’t afford to restore.

We scavenge shards of pottery
which keep working their way to the surface.

—

A Pushcart nominated poet, Phyllis Wax writes on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI.  Her work has appeared in many publications, including Out of Line, Your Daily Poem, Verse Wisconsin, Seeding the Snow, Ars Medica and Naugatuck River Review.  She co-edited the 2002 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar.

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