Member-only story
Pink, White, and Blue — and Green
atop the walls of an old canal lock
at the confluence with a small tributary
Phlox paniculata reaches for the fluffy sky
on a most reassuringly warm spring day
the stones that make up this structure
are enormous and — to me — graceful
in the way they have been shaped
from the regular rectilinear blocks
one might expect in such a structure
to the consistently curved edges which
make up a particular portion of the interior
this canal was rendered obsolete by the railroad
and so tracks were laid upon the towpath
in some sections even before a mule
ever towed a barge or packet
and so the motive power
of human and animal strength
was replaced by the burning of coal
in order to carry more coal from the coalfields
to the colliers awaiting in Newport News
and now, as coal finds fewer friends
the phlox is blooming in soil
where once there was only stone
and solar panels are appearing in places…
