Beating asphalt into highway potholes
        pickup truck we'd loaded
road repair stock shed & yard
a day so hot the asphalt went in soft.
        pipe and steel plate tamper
took turns at by hand
then drive the truck rear wheel
a few times back and forth across the fill–
finish it off with bitchmo around the edge.

the foreman said let's get a drink
& drove through the woods and flower fields
        shovels clattering in back
into a black grove by a cliff
        a rocked in pool
        feeding a fern ravine
                      tin can to drink
numbing the hand and cramping in the gut
surging through the fingers from below
        & dark here–
let's get back to the truck
get back on the job.