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A Story of How a Wall Stands

 

At Aacqu there is a wall

almost 400 years old

which supports hundreds

of tons of dirt and bones –

it’s a graveyard built on a

steep incline – and it looks

 like it’s about to fall down

 the incline but will not for

 a long time.

 

My father, who works with stone,

says,  “That’s just the part you see,

the stones which seem to be

just packed in on the outside,”

and with his hands puts the stone and mud

in place.  “Underneath what looks like loose stone,

there is stone woven together.”

He ties one hand over the other,

fitting like the bones of his hands

and fingers.  “That’s what is

holding it together.”

 

“It is built that carefully,”

he says, “the mud mixed

to a certain texture,” patiently

“with the fingers,” worked

in the palm of his hand.  “So that

placed between the stones, they hold

together for a long, long time.”

 

He tells me those things,

the story of them worked

with his fingers, in the palm

of his hands, working the stone

and the mud until they become

the wall that stands a long, long time.

 

            Simon J. Ortiz