Ziggurat
Mark Imielski


It's not so difficult to keep
quiet. Mountains are easily built
in sand, but he doesn't like the way we get

too loud. He tore down our swing set
when we tried to make the loop
around and didn't say a word

for three weeks. It didn't matter
that he built it for us without
us asking, it was that he built it. In the time

he refused to speak, he dug
up the swings and planted basil,
taught himself to cook. It is a kind

of forgiveness, the way he pounds
chicken flat on the wood
cutting board and lays the leaves across

its breast for us.