The fossils

I feel
says the woman on the bus
like I've swallowed a branch

is this a new flu?
The bus-driver says
I feel like I've swallowed a hurry.

Well I
says the depot manager
I feel like I've swallowed

a large white brick
state house
the brick isn't real

page 144

it's a kind of cladding
at one corner a nest
of spiders is building.

We the shareholders
feel like we've swallowed a bus
no—several buses

trolley buses or trams that depend
on electricity for their volition
and wave sparking antennae

at thick wires criss-crossing our city
making every suburb and hotspot
accessible without resort

to the motorcar
and its archaic fossil-fuel-burning
technologies.

We are a branch
say the fossils
of your family.