Because the Sub Basement Flooded

by Michael Brownstein

Come visit with me
as I dig this hole to China
or at least to where
the utility pole crushed
our ceramic pipe into sea shell.

I dig into fresh earth
in search of pipes,
cracks in pipes,
something I do not wish to touch,

the clay a few feet down
the rock full of grease,
a spline of brick,
a flow of urine.