Gutter Work

Hurling clumps

of humus down,

wrapped in yellow

sheaves of curling leaves.

The ten-foot, seamless

k-style channel,

a forged arroyo,

engorged with matter.

Thuds of dense clods

against the blacktop,

followed by the falling

graceful, golden codas.

Clattering down

the aluminum ladder,

sodden gloves shed

up on the shingles,

to dry. Vertiginous,

alive to the cold

incandescence

of throbbing scarlet

fingers, naked as winter.

“Gutter Work” originally appeared in Issue #29 of Verses from the Underground.