They extend the days
Our ancestors lacked them
Behind walls of wattle or mud
They slept long
Not prodded by the sun
and stepped out
to dawn’s silhouette of trees

They praised their walls rightly
unable to equal the power of winter
or the blaze of the summer sun

Confined briefly behind walls now
in clothes of our choosing
our modern floors keep the earth out
worms we pretend don’t exist
and the infinite creatures soaring above
invisible to us


Published in Trolley, SUNY Writer’s Institute, 2020