Gravel pits dig new
digs as water stashes, life’s
about storage, we
call them ponds or lakes, these holes
are new uses for former
lacks, neglect, we call
it, “a rape and escape men-
tality” made in
to parks, greenbelt strips reclaimed
from the farm, the massive jaw
of industry’s churn
to build houses and roads, grind
stone down quicker than
rivers, sift out cobbles, make
pebbles into gray vowels
This new life offers
civic solutions to old
uses, playgrounds, wet
zones, skate parks, fountains, dog parks,
community gardens, links
called frisbee golf, “there’s
not a natural lake on the
whole Poudre drainage,”
sd Commissioner of the
County, “the reclamation
and treatment a pit
receives depends on its next
use,” it’s grading and
backfilling for next life, to
line or not to line with clay
‘slurry walls’ they call
them, to keep the muck out or
the muck in, City’s
groundwater is gold when it
comes to crops, houses that need
parks, picnic spots, rest
areas for old and young,
“the kids play with the
other kids who come with their
moms, grandparents,” it goes on
and on in shady
places, hooky coves, bowers
for young lovers, smokes
and drinks “down by the river
side,” destinations, people
might say, biomes, golf
courses in riparian
zones, fresh new digs, old
pits, the song remains the same
What was the dam that started
the pond that Jack built
Eyes to sky, there’s a peace here,
a ditch that fills it
—
Matthew Cooperman is the author of, most recently, the atmosphere is not a perfume it is odorless (Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press, 2024) and Wonder About The, winner of the Halcyon Prize (Middle Creek, 2023) as well as NOS (disorder, not otherwise specified), with Aby Kaupang, (Futurepoem, 2018), Spool, winner of the New Measure Prize (Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press, 2016), and other books. His ninth book, Time, & Its Monument, is forthcoming from Station Hill Press. A Founding Editor of the exploratory prose journal Quarter After Eight, Cooperman is Co-Poetry Editor for Colorado Review, and Professor of English at Colorado State University. He lives in Fort Collins with his wife, the poet Aby Kaupang, and their children. More info at http://matthewcooperman.org
