lying together
[in the] Open
is solution
to architecture
bone and stone
conform
briefly
then fall away
[As] the foot
exposed
seldom changes
in appearance,
physical as it is
proper,
water [will] rise
running east and west.
the earth ruind
60 feet
of earth 50 feet
now 5
i see your
surface
all
trim all
wall and form
features I found
in inches
I lie
near perpendicular
and smoke
The rose face
the inner circle
the neck
flush
Outside
the south side I stand
upright
the compass point
coincid[ing] with the universe
pass
over these
ancient acres
the tongue
i am able in early July
to lie down
twenty-four rows of
me
and each one so
broken and weathered
as to require excavation
i found
The buried man
we found
in the presence
of conjectured occupants
trac[ed] upon the
here and now
I scatter ash
in the corner
This seems of some importance
these layers
thes
many dark layers
this drift dark
streak along the earth
i held
a pot
top to bottom
a stone axe
to my face
i held out
without breaking
back back
I [learned
to] take meaning hard
into the cave,
judge it–
It lies.
It is thin.
I appear abruptly
then go.
absence
and nearness to destruction is
[a] most decorative leavetaking
I found purposes of repair
several miles west
farther west
a spring
and another
Converge
then fall
The irregular
court rough ruin
The well dressed are
well preserved
and free
their great concerns longer
and wider [than ours]
before
I was not able to form an opinion
my cattle Brain selected few
broken and weathered
thoughts To Think
Note: This work is an erasure of “A Further Study of Prehistoric Small House Ruins in the San Juan Watershed” by T. Mitchell Prudden.
Vernon Ng teaches English at Diné College in Shiprock, NM.
*Photo by Vernon Ng.