We built our house
here, our home
on solid ground
we thought. No history
of excavation, no known plan
to mine. Our land
sits squarely
mid-continental plate, far from fault-lines,
subduction zones. We are not
prone to earthquakes,
eruptions. Occasional tremors,
perhaps, largely ignored
except by those
with particular interest
in fine detail
of geology, substrates, earth
movements.
Fragilities
in the strata, warnings
missed, these covert mining
operations unseen by most
until the spoils spilled. Here now
on the surface, ore stripped
of metal, mined
by toxic intention, a warren
of tunnels below. Subsidence
will follow.
We built our house
here, our home.
Barbara Sellars