Dig
by Jo Barbara Taylor
by Jo Barbara Taylor
Cathédrale
Sainte-Bénogne
Dijon,France
Outside
the simple sacred church, an open pit.
My
first archaeological dig.
July
sun throws shadow deep in the hole.
Diggers
in khaki shorts and dungarees
pick,
sift, brush in consecrated dirt
with
tiny tools like children ply to shape
a
sandcastle on shore. They squat, sit, kneel,
pick,
sift, brush, and wash. Each exposed layer,
down,
down to 500 A.D. visible
as
circles on a stump, tells the story
of
basilica, abbey, cathedral
in
dust, shards of pottery, in bones.
The
sweet smell of sautéed onion floats
from
a window across the street, anoints the pit.
When
evening shadow darkens the pit
and
the aroma of butter and onion
reaches
the sixth century,
the
pickers and sifters climb the scaffold,
pass
each layer of the plot, all the while
adding
a new chapter.
Now
I am a character in the story,
doing
the same.
Jo
Barbara Taylor lives in North Carolina, but is an Indiana
farm girl at heart. Her poems and academic writing have appeared in
journals, magazines, anthologies and online. How to Come and
Go (Chatter House Press 2016) is her fourth book. She leads
poetry-writing workshops through Duke Continuing Education, chairs
the workshop committee for the North Carolina Poetry Society, and
coordinates a poetry reading series for a Raleigh independent
bookstore.