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Beneath

Ruth Ayle

She was anxious about the ground beneath her feet

because it had never explained itself or
engaged in confidences, or promised to stay solid.

Her feet claimed that it was easy:

you just walked and one step a er another

would take you away from hard ques ons

but her right big toe had broken three mes

against large stones kicked in passing,

and remained as bent-in as betrayal;

and she was sure that under the grass,

under the worm-digested soil, the yellow s cky clay
and the rocks spreading in un dy layers

were the festering hollows and cavi es of the past.

She trembled at their snatching force.

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