The Pedestrian

The knuckles of the Earth are especially raw.
On detail days there are fluids to be sopped up,
rough edges of the sidewalk to be mapped

because when you walk long sidewalks
you need strategy. I feel the weight
my body offers to nature pressing my feet.

There are rips in the thinning skin of my fingers
as I open can and tub and box. There are needles
and pins, and bits of steel that catch in the weave of my shirts.