Nate Maxson
A pile of mammoth bones, whole skeletons they found in Montana
Now a tourist attraction for the nearby town
They built a boardwalk over the pit
Still in a state of slow excavation, sticky notes and tarps covering some of them like bodies in a morgue
65 males found so far (you can tell from the femur shapes I think)
All trapped one by one in the tar, through the shale all in a row
Waiting for a new city to grow from their resting placement
Like sprouts of green coming through the concrete
I remember a fever that I had, once, when I was younger
Climbing into a bathtub in the late fall
Dreaming the Halloween daylight might last forever
***
Nate Maxson is a writer, performance artist, and the author of several collections of poetry including Maps To The Vanishing which is coming out in 2022 from Finishing Line Press. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.