Coming Home

The junked cars and other metals
they melted at the steel mill

whatever byproducts
they dumped into the Guadalupe River

like a tree
I grew ring by ring by ring

you can't carbon date
the future

my words thicker than water

my hometown falling apart
faster than my past

rusting and dripping
metal becoming dirt

if I put it in my mouth
it is me tasting the whole of it

reduced to the single thing
we all become